Volume4 issue 2 corporate citizen

INTERVIEW Dinesh Bhojwani, Head-Distribution HR, Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. Ltd Volume 4, Issue No. 02 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in

SURVEY

The UN World Happiness Report 2018

April 1-15, 2018 / `50

Big Data & Digitisation driving manufacturing excellence

Dynamic Duo: 68

Wise & Wonderful Daulat and Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi

Loved & Married Too

Rupa and Ajinkya Dantale

INTERVIEW

Harshini Kanhekar, First woman firefighter of India

2 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 67

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feedback

Voice of Corporate Citizen is youthful

I recently purchased a Corporate Citizen magazine, when I had already finished reading Forbes and Outlook editions for the fortnight and was looking for something different. I was pleasantly surprised. This magazine is unlike any other business magazine in the market.

It has business interviews as well as some off the beat articles which you won’t find in any magazine. It also features insights into the minds of business leaders in a very unique manner. The voice of Corporate Citizen is youthful, which I like.

— Anup Biswas, Mumbai

Make GST Good and Simple Tax

Eye-opening World Bank report on GST in India should make GST council overhaul GST structure thoroughly. It refers to recent World Bank report which has established GST in India to be amongst complex-most with extra number of tax rates amongst all about 115 countries in the world where GST system is applicable. GST regime implemented from 01.07.2017 needs to be totally overhauled by time-bound 01.07.2018 where after Goods and Service tax may really become Good and Simple Tax. Present tax rates of 0, 0.25, 3, 5, 12, 18, 28 per cent with even more complicated addition of cess that too with petroleum products and some other commodities and services exempted should be revised mainly with just two slabs of 10 and 20 per cent with service sector placed in 10-per cent slab. People presently lured with gimmick 0 per cent GST on some commodities will feel much more relieved by huge reduction in other slabs to be restricted to 10 and 20 per cent only. Any further anticipated revenue loss by introduction of two-slab formula can be cut by abolition of Input-Credit-Tax (ITC).

However if revenue-loss by way of abolition of cess on certain commodities is quite high, then special tax-rates in multiples of 50 per cent may be there but only on commodities attracting appreciable revenue. There should be one consolidated monthly GST return rather than too many presently. However a mechanism may be developed whereby traders may have to voluntary though under compulsion may have to issue GST invoices without being insisted or even asked for by customers.

— Subhash Chandra Agrawal, Delhi (Guinness Record Holder & RTI Consultant)

Wow story on Druk White Lotus School

Dynamic Duo: 67 Your recent interview of manjeet and Rajkumar Hirani Stanzin Kunzang, Principal, coRpoRaTe sTalwaRT : 6 Druk White Lotus School Stanzin (Corporate Citizen, Kunzang, Principal, Issue 1, March 16-31, was very Druk White Lotus School inspiring and a great read.

The story is really a supreme Sonam Channa and Basant example of resilience, courage, Sharma and grit, as mentioned in the Hurun intro. Running such a classGlobal Rich List one school in a remote place 2018 in Himalayas, at an altitude Unsung of 3,500 metres and only Panel discussion Heroes accessible for six months of on MSME sector in India 2025 the year, in the Leh Valley in Ladakh, with unique educational practices, is an undertaking to be appreciated as nation’s pride. The school model is worth replicating in other parts of India. This issue enlightened with another interview of corporate stalwart, T.V. Mohandas Pai, the former CFO and HR Head of Infosys.

Great going, CC team.

—Neha Jha, software engineer March 16-31, 2018 / `50

Volume 4, Issue No. 01 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in

CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP

iT inDusTRy is ouR naTion’s pRiDe

Loved & Married Too

SURVEY

T V Mohandas Pai, forMer Cfo and hr head, infosys

BOOK REVIEW

CII Manufacturing Summit

Major (Retd.) Pradeep Khare

Why so much focus on love marriages alone?

I’ve been a regular reader of CC and what I like the most is that unlike other business magazines, you don’t talk about celebrities but rather focus on the views and career journeys of little-known corporate leaders making silent but significant contribution to the society. Another thing that attracts me is the fact that you never miss to include the critical role played by the spouse in the success of the leader concerned. I salute you for that! However, sometimes I also feel that you’re consciously promoting love marriages through your different columns. Well, there’s nothing wrong in love marriages but you must not forget that the rates of divorce in love marriages are much higher in India than in arranged marriages and they break faster than the arranged ones.

—Priyanka Joshi, Gurugram

Make hay when the sun shines

I have been reading Corporate Citizen for two years. Stories like ‘Tax Column’, ‘The Last Word’ and ‘Sessions’ (CII and NHRDN) are the soul of the magazine. In ‘Cradle of Leadership’, there

were few stories, which were very good like St Peter’s School, Panchgani and Savitribai Phule Pune University. I would like to see more Cradle stories from across India. The other regular columns are good reads, however I feel ‘Campus Placement’ should be a more detailed journey, I mean something exceptional and a newsworthy feature. In the hay days of electronic media, good to know print mags still have demand.

— Manohar Tiwari, businessman, Mumbai

We look forward to your feedback

We at Corporate Citizen, believe that information should not be a one-way street. Your opinion and views about this issue are most welcome. Your ideas and new thoughts you may have, to enhance the content quality of our magazine, are most welcome. We rely on you to keep Corporate Citizen, on the positive and cool note, through your interaction on this page—just as you trust us with the content that we bring you, every fortnight. Mail us your views on: corporatecitizenwriters@gmail.com

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 3

Editor-in-Chief’s Choice / Dr Manoj S. Kamat

Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian

Just lip service to higher education?

T

he word ‘education’ was used 43 times by the Finance Minister in his Budget speech - 2018 compared to the cumulative total of 53 times in last four budgets from 20142017. However, the irony is that, in 2018, the relative percentage of financial allocation to education in the next year has been brought down to 3.48 per cent from 3.69 per cent of total budgetary expenditure in the current year. Moreover, the share of higher education in the total budgetary allocation to the education sector in the current budget increased by merely one per cent from 41 per cent in the last budget. The gross allocation of `35.10 thousand crore to higher education in 2018-19 is less than half per cent higher compared to the revised estimates of 2017-18 given that the size of the current budget is around 10 per cent larger than the last one. The figures in the economic survey published last month hinted of a fiscal slip this year and thus it wasn’t any surprise when the FM used the word ‘tax’ at a maximum of 116 times in his Budget speech, the highest ever in the last 4 years!

The government aims at a growth rate of around seven per cent in the current fiscal while job creation is at the lowest level in past three years. Fitch Ratings puts

4 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

India’s potential growth rate at 6.7 per cent for the next five years and adds that access to education is one factor holding back growth in productivity. Highly educated and skilled people will be crucial to such growth. The programmes like Digital India, Skill India, Startup India and Make in India are being pushed to the core but for its success, it is imperative that the public funding in higher education is spiked up to fulfil the educational aspirations of youth and expectations of the industry.

The budgetary allocations to higher education, unfortunately, failed to reflect the seriousness of the government on this front.

DRASTIC CUT IN SUPPORT

Higher educational institutions in India experience a huge financial and infrastructural divide with a dichotomy in opportunity for learners. The increased funding, autonomy in administration and higher research grant have always been the prerogatives of the Centrally-sponsored institutions like that of the AIIMSs, IITs, IIMs, NITs and Central universities, while state-funded universities and the university-affiliated colleges in many parts of the country still languish for basic funds, manage with most paltry or no

non-salary grants and with regular teaching positions not filled up for years. It was thus expected that the budget would make some attempts to create a level-playing field between the Centrally-funded and state-funded institutions by providing a cushion to state-run institutions. There also exists a wide gap in infrastructural facilities existing in the rural and urban higher education sphere. Most importantly, the figures released by National Sample Survey Key Indicators of Household Consumer Expenditure reveal that monthly spending on education for the top 5 per cent of urban Indians is `908.12 and for the bottom 5 per cent of our rural countrymen, it is merely `7.54. There is an ardent need to bridge this gap. Looking at the pathetic budgetary allocations for the coming year it is expected that the Centre-funded and the state-funded higher education institutions will both choke simultaneously.

The state-funded institutions cater to maximum students in the higher education segment and are largely dependent on plan-based grants from the UGC and more recently for infrastructure grants from the Rashtriya Ucchatar Shiksha Abhiyaan (RUSA). You may find it intriguing to note that the fund allocation to the UGC has been cut by around `200 crore while the fully Central-sponsored flagship scheme of RUSA, which was expected to massively increase its outreach in 2018-19 managed to get a mere increase from `100 crore to `1,400 crore.

Collectively, Central-funded institutions of eminence like IITs, IISc, IIMs and NITs significantly contribute to applied research and usually receive a higher share in total higher education spending. These institutions will significantly suffer in the ensuing year as the budgetary support to all IITs is drastically cut by 24 per cent, for Central universities and NITs by 13 per cent respectively, the allocations for IISER is reduced by `26 crore, all IIMs by `32 crore and to IISc by `65 crore in 2018-19 compared to 2017-18 revised estimates.

Given the high push towards ‘Digital India,’ the corresponding budget allocation for digital initiatives is also demoralising. The massive open online courses (MOOCs), the part of the overall e-learning segment and the national digital library project have been allocated the same as last year. The budget is also silent on any allocation for the proposed National Testing Agency and the Innovation Fund and has cut fund allocation for e-learning from `518 crore in last year to `456 crore in 2018-19.

VIABILITY OF NEW FUNDING MECHANISM

The suggested reasoning for massive support cut for Central-funded institutions of eminence is that all infrastructure financing will now be moved to the ‘Higher Education Funding Agency’ (HEFA) instead of, from budgetary grants. HEFA was granted a budgetary allocation of `250 crore last year but is proposed an allocation of `2,750 crore for the ensuing year.

Thus the additional allocation to HEFA of `2,500

crore comes at the cost of cutting cumulative budgetary allocations to all such institutions to the tune of `3,500 crore. Moreover, since it is envisaged that HEFA will put in place a system where educational institutions will now borrow instead of depending on grants for each of their expenses, this money needs to be repaid in over 10 years. The budget announced a new scheme called ‘Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education’ (RISE) and planned to step up investments in research-related infrastructure in premier educational institutions.

The RISE scheme will be financed via HEFA established as a non-banking financial company jointly by the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Canara Bank and aims to lend low-cost funds to government higher educational institutions. Currently, HEFA is looking to raise `20 lakh crore and budget announcement hikes this number to `1 trillion in next four years.

Further details about RISE are still awaited but in the light of lofty plans, it may be noted that HEFA has given loans only worth over `2,066 crore to 27 projects of six engineering institutions until December last year.

UNFULFILLED EXPECTATIONS

To support the educational technology related startups and given the renewed interest of new-technology-oriented firms looking at e-education as a business model, the existing GST on education services could have been reduced. Further, it was expected that the private sector participation would get greater incentives through liberal tax and regulatory enablers for allowing foreign universities to collaborate and operate in India. Considering the looming costs of higher education, some relaxations in terms of educational loans were also expected. Presently, Section 80E of Income Tax Act has a provision to claim the interest paid on an education loan as a tax deduction for eight financial years. Given the higher burden of interest rates on such loans, a more widened the tax deduction window was least expected. The buffer period for repayment could also have been extended. Further as an incentive to pursue job-oriented courses such loans could have covered any vocational course irrespective of government recognition or not to enable borrowers take up self-employment. No such respite came through. Sadly, the budget also lost an opportunity in the establishment and strengthening ‘Skills University’ and ‘National Board for Skills Assessment and Certification’ by not making any financial provision.

In his centenary address at the University of Patna, the Prime Minister remarked that offering higher education institutions financial support and unshackling them from restrictions will help them develop own roadmaps and pursue their ideas of excellence. In the light of the allocation for higher education in the current Union Budget, it is easier said than done!

(This article was orginally published in Sakal Times.

This is the link to the article http://www.sakaltimes.com/ opinion/just-lip-service-higher-education-14493)

The budgetary support to all IITs is drastically cut by 24 per cent, for Central universities and NITs by 13 per cent respectively, the allocations for IISER is reduced by `26 crore, all IIMs by `32 crore and to IISc by `65 crore in 2018-19 compared to 2017-18 revised estimates

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 5

Vi ral jay O b ne

oi er

LT Ge

Contents

Volume 4 Issue No. 02 April 1-15, 2018 www.corporatecitizen.in

20 Cover story

Dynamic Duo 68

Wise & Wonderful

The golden jubilee couple, Daulat and former Vice Chief of the Indian Army, Lt General Vijay Oberoi, show how to live a life of pure joy, wit and togetherness. Gen Oberoi also reflects on his over 40-year-long journey in the army

6 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

9 COLLYWOOD Chatpata Chatter from the Corporate World

14 WAX ELOQUENT Who said what and why

16 EXPERT VIEW Are we ready for the new world order that is coming?

14

28 CII MANUFACTURING CONCLAVE Panel discussion on how Big Data and Digitisation will drive manufacturing excellence in the future

32

32 INTERVIEW Dinesh Bhojwani, Head-Distribution HR, Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. Ltd., talks about the boom of IT in HR and its future 38 INTERVIEW Harshini Kanhekar, Deputy Manager, ONGC, talks on what it takes to become India’s first woman firefighter

28

16

38

42 TRAVEL Devendra Parulekar, Founder, SaffronStays, talks on Swiss Riviera 44 CAMPUS PLACEMENT Kumudni Manocha on her campus placement experience and her new innings in the corporate world 46 LOVED & MARRIED TOO Rupa and Ajinkya Dantale are deeply invested in each other’s dreams

44

48 SURVEY The UN World Happiness Report 2018 52 HEALTH Staying fit to endure the journey of being a classical dancer

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46 April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 7

contents

54 Editor-In-Chief Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian Consulting Editor Vinita Deshmukh vinita.corporatecitizen@gmail.com Assistant Editor & Senior Business Writer Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com

52

54 PEARLS OF WISDOM Conquering the mind and achieving inner tranquillity

58 MOBILE APPS The best dictation apps

Sub-Editor Vineet Kapshikar vineetkapshikar@gmail.com Writers Delhi Bureau Pradeep Mathur mathurpradeep1@gmail.com/ Sharmila Chand chand.sharmila@gmail.com

55 EXPERT OPINION Why are we not profiting from the opportunity of a re-invented future?

56 HOLLYWOOD BIZ Oscar winners 2018

Senior Sub-Editor Neeraj Varty neeraj.varty07@gmail.com

Bengaluru Bureau Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar sangeetagd2010@gmail.com

56

61 MY FIRST BOSS Ayesha Barse, Vice President, HR, Kenilworth Hotels, Goa on her first boss 66 THE LAST WORD The need for well-meaning social interventions

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8 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

Pune Bureau Joe Williams / Kalyani Sardesai / Namrata Gulati Sapra Marketing Manager Delhi: Mohamed Rizwan riz.mohamed@hotmail.com Manager-Circulation circulations@corporatecitizen.in West : Jaywant Patil, +91 9923202560 North : Hemant Gupta, +91 9582210930 South : Asaithambi G, +91 9941555389 Creative Direction Sumeet Gupta, www.thepurplestroke.com Graphic Designer Shantanu Relekar On Cover Page Daulat and Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi Cover Page Pic By Anil Website / Online Subscription www.corporatecitizen.in For Advertising, Marketing & Subscription queries Email: circulations@corporatecitizen.in (Corporate Citizen does not accept responsibility for returning unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. All unsolicited material should be accompanied by self-addressed envelopes and sufficient postage.)

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collywood

People in the news

Jaya Bachchan, Richest Parliamentarian?

With declared assets of `1,000 crore, the Samajwadi Party (SP) MP from Uttar Pradesh Jaya Bachchan could well be the country’s richest Member of Parliament (MP). Actor-turned-politician, Jaya will, in the process, supersede BJP Rajya Sabha MP Ravindra Kishore Sinha who declared assets worth `800 crore in 2014 while entering the Upper House. Jaya, who recently filed her nomination as an SP candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls, had declared assets worth `493 crore in 2012. According to her affidavit, Jaya and her husband Amitabh have immovable assets worth more than `460 crore, which is over twice the `152 crore they owned in 2012. The value of their movable assets too rose from around `343 crore in

2012 to around `540 crore. The couple have gold worth `62 crore. While Amitabh has gold worth `36 crore, Jaya owns jewellery worth `26 crore.

They have 12 cars worth `13 crore—the models include Rolls Royce, three Mercedes, a Porsche and a Range Rover. Amitabh also owns a Tata Nano car and a tractor. Besides, there are other valuable things in the possession of these stars. Big B’s and Jaya’s watches are worth `3.4 crore and `51 lakh respectively, while Amitabh owns a pen which is worth `9 lakh. They have residential plots in France, and land in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki district and properties in Noida, Bhopal, Pune, Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.

Sanjeev Nautiyal takes over as SBI Life MD and CEO Sanjeev Nautiyal took over as the Managing Director and CEO of SBI Life Insurance Company. He takes charge from Arijit Basu, who has now been posted as Deputy Managing Director of Corporate Accounts Group of parent company, SBI. He has been appointed for a period of two years.

Meanwhile SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd today said P. K. Gupta, SBI MD - Retail and Digital Banking, has been appointed by the parent firm as nominee director on its board.

New role for former Flipkart dean

With over three decades of experience across pharmaceuticals, telecom, retail and e-commerce in his kitty, Vivek Mehrotra has been elevated as senior vice president, learning & organisation development at Jana Small Finance Bank. Prior to this, he was Vice President, L&OD at Janalakshmi Financial Services. He was earlier dean of Flipkart University. Mehrotra has successfully launched several large-scale training and coaching rollouts, targeted performance coaching and leadership development, including the rollout of assessment centres.

He spent the first 13 years of his career in sales at Lupin, before moving on to training in the company for six years. He also headed the sales function at Lupin. In 2006, he moved to Reliance Retail as head of training operation and stayed there for more than seven years.

And in the year 2014, Mehrotra joined Flipkart as head academy for supply chain and was given the responsibility to set up the ‘Academy for Supply Chain’ at Flipkart India. His contribution saw Flipkart name him the dean of Flipkart University, wherein he set up processes for competency-based leadership development, career progression, succession planning, and developing community of practices (CoP) for leadership development.

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 9

collywood Peter Betzel to head IKEA India Sunita, apt example of empowered women Sunita Kashyap, founder of Umang, is the right example for women empowering themselves and coming up with solutions to their problems, observed UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak, recently. While women face challenges, rural women act as a major source of innovation and ideas, according to the UN Commission on Status of Women (CSW). Sunita, who has set the example for all women, has over 3,000 women farmers in India who sell their own crops to make their living. “These kind of women do not need our help in finding solutions; what they need is our support in turning their ideas into reality,” said Lajcak while talking about this year’s meeting.

CSW focuses on achieving gender equality and empowerment of rural women and girls.

Sunita founded Mahila Umang Producers Co., an organisation in Uttarakhand run by women farmers and producers. Besides marketing their products, it runs a micro-credit programme.

Lajcak also cited the work of Mariama Mamane, a Kenyan who developed an eco-solution to improve the availability of irrigation and drinking water, while also producing energy.

Peter Betzel has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of IKEA, the Swedish home furnishings company for its India business. He takes over from the outgoing India CEO Juvencio Maeztu, who moves into a global role as the CFO and Deputy CEO, IKEA Group (INGKA Holding B.V.). Betzel is known for his leadership skills and ability to drive growth in diverse markets, was heading the IKEA Group’s largest market Germany prior to his assignment in India, and will take the lead in IKEA’s expansion in the company, beginning with the upcoming launch of the first IKEA store in the country in Hyderabad this year. India is marked as one of IKEA’s most important growth markets and the company has committed large investments to India. Prior to leading Germany, Peter was the Country Manager of IKEA Spain. He has also been a champion of sustainability and one of his many achievements is the delivery of one of the most sustainable IKEA stores in the world, at Kaarst, Germany. In India, apart from the growth-intensive plan, Peter sees diversity and inclusion as key topics to focus on as the company grows its workforce from 400 to 15,000 in the coming years. These values are what makes IKEA a unique place to work for and associate with, for co-workers and partners across geographies. “India is a vibrant, multi-cultural, multi-faceted and a really exciting market for IKEA. From what I have observed in the little time that I have spent here—people are warm, hospitable and ready to experiment with their home and surroundings. They want to have a good lifestyle and that is evident from the passion they display in the way they work and live. As I start my new role, I look forward to establishing IKEA as a meaningful, loved and trusted brand. I will be working with the local teams to bring in a unique global shopping experience offering good-quality and affordable home furnishing products to a diverse set of consumers across the country,” said Betzel about his new role.

TVS scion Lakshmi Venu ties the knot Lakshmi Venu, daughter of TVS Motor Company Chairman Venu Srinivasan and TAFE Chairman Mallika Srinivasan tied the knot with Mahesh Gogineni in Jodhpur at a private function attended by close friends and family. Gogineni is the great-grandson of N. G. Ranga, former parliamentarian, president of the Swatantra Party and a Padma Vibhushan awardee and son of Suguna and Dr Kamalendra Gogineni. A graduate from

10 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

BITS Pilani and London School of Economics, and an MBA from Stanford, Mahesh Gogineni returned to India and became a technology entrepreneur. He has made a successful exit from his first startup and is currently pursuing his second startup, Gifskey.

Lakshmi is the managing director of Sundaram Clayton Limited (SCL) and director of TAFE Motors and Tractors Limited (TMTL). She holds a doctorate

from the University of Warwick and is a graduate in economics from Yale University. She spearheads Sundaram Clayton, which counts global auto majors, including Cummins, Volvo, Hyundai, Daimler and Paccar among its customers. She is credited with SCL’s foray into the US with the setting up of a greenfield factory in Charleston, South Carolina, to manufacture high-pressure diecast and gravity-cast parts.

Chris Barbin, global culture officer at Wipro

Twitter gets Parag Agrawal as CTO

IIT-Bombay alumnus Parag Agrawal who joined Twitter as an advertisement engineer has been appointed as its Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 as an ads engineer, and most recently held the title of Distinguished Software Engineer.

He takes the position held by Adam Messinger, who left in 2016.

Agrawal completed his PhD in computer science from Stanford University in 2011. Before Twitter, Agrawal did research internships at AT&T, Microsoft and Yahoo.

His contributions at Twitter include leading efforts to increase the relevance of tweets in Twitter users’ timelines using Artificial Intelligence (AI). In his new role as

CTO, he will be focused on scaling a cohesive machine learning and AI approach across consumer and revenue product and infrastructure teams. Twitter was on the lookout to hire a Director of Social Science in an attempt to increase the collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation, which will be on top of their agenda. Incidentally, this is the first time Twitter hasn’t had a CTO for a while. Its first CTO, Greg Pass, joined in 2008 after Twitter bought Summize. Greg quit the social media major in May 2011.

Messinger, a former Oracle executive, joined Twitter in November 2011 but only took over as CTO in March 2013.

Chris Barbin, co-founder & CEO of Appirio, a company acquired

by Wipro a year and four months ago, has been named the global culture officer (GCO). Appirio has to its credit, been chosen for the 10 ‘Best Places to Work’ awards, in its ten years of existence. Barbin, who will report to the company’s CHRO Saurabh Govil, will work with Wipro’s executive team, its Board of Directors, and a small dedicated team of change agents to evolve and advance worker experience at the company. Writing in the company’s official blog, Barbin stated, “This isn’t another ‘digital transformation’ initiative, nor is it about modernising technology or systems (although that will be a component). It’s not ‘just an HR thing’ focused on what new incentives or training programmes we can put in place. Wipro already has award-winning programmes in place. It’s more about how we will empower our people and teams across the world to move faster. It’s about challenging belief systems and eliminating organisation friction.” Wipro is not a new player in the corporate field as they have over seven decades of existence and boasts of 1,300+ customers and 1,80,000 employees. It has made the investment to ensure its technologies and offerings are some of the best in the industry, and its customers are constantly looking to its teams to keep them ahead of the curve.

The whole idea of having a GCO is to stay relevant for the employees as well. “While culture may sound soft and squishy, this new role will be anything but that for me. What we recommend and put in place will be based on research (such as the recent culture work of Harvard Business Review), best practices from thought leaders, such as Netflix’s Patty McCord, as well as hard-earned insights from a couple of decades in the fast-paced startup world. Wipro’s leadership is very clear about its desire to be a leader in the digital era, and the research is clear that leadership and culture are intertwined,” said Barbin, who has been the CEO of Appirio since its inception.

Previously he worked at Borland Software, where before becoming its CIO, Barbin also served as the company’s SVP of worldwide services, managing and growing its global consulting, education, and technical support organisations.

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 11

HasGeek CEO Zainab re-defines perceptions

Ex-Uber CEO Kalanick’s new venture In what could be termed as the second coming, Travis Kalanick, co-founder and former CEO of cab aggregator Uber announced the setting up of an investment firm 10100 (read ‘ten one hundred’) which will focus only on companies in China and India. This was revealed by Kalanick himself through his Twitter handle. He goes on to say in his tweet that this new entity will take care of his investments that are of the for-profit kind as well as the not-for-profit investments. According to media reports, Kalanick will likely invest in startups that have between 10 and 100 employees—the magic growth stage for startups. He has also disclosed that the real estate sector, e-commerce and emerging innovation will be the key sectors for his for-profit

investments in India and will be directed at largescale job creation which will be the target objective.

Under the not-for-profit ventures category investments, education will be the top priority. Though he left Uber as CEO, he continues to be on its Board and is reported to have joined the Board of another company, Kareo, that is into medical office software. The announcement about his setting up an investment fund has not been accompanied by details of the source of these funds; however, since he is said to have sold around a third of his holding in Uber for a consideration of around $1.4 billion in January this year, it is speculated that a large part of these funds will find their way into the China-India-focused investment venture.

Boeing shortlists 13 startups As they move into the last phase the Boeing HorizonX India Innovation Challenge, 13 startups are being shortlisted. The challenge was launched in association with T-Hub in November 2017 and saw 4,500 applications being received. Of this, 80 entries were shortlisted, which is now down to the 13 finalists.

This also includes six teams from Boeing’s research and technology centre. Boeing will finally select three startups from outside and three from its in-house centre to provide support and funding. In a statement Boeing stated the selected startups and internal teams will now work on perfecting their ideas and concepts to develop disruptive solutions and tackle complex challenges in multiple areas of aerospace such as IoT and AI. All the finalists will receive funding to participate in a three-month accelerator pro12 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

gramme at T-Hub, where they will be mentored

by Startup India, Boeing subject matter experts and industry experts to shape their ideas. The winners of the competition will receive a grant and an opportunity to engage with Boeing on future partnerships. This Innovation Challenge is aimed at attracting the best Indian startups to propose disruptive solutions to tackle complex challenges in the areas of autonomous and unmanned systems, advanced manufacturing, industrial IoT and automation, analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Entrepreneurs will be invited to present ideas on select themes that include drones and data application, factory productivity, supply chain, aircraft maintenance and services, passenger experience, defence, commercial and industrial uses.

Overcoming intimidation is the key to success is what Zainab Bawa, co-founder and CEO of HasGeek says.

She is of the opinion that the challenge for women in tech is to constantly second-guess themselves when it comes to knowledge. She believes that the phrase ‘women in tech’ needs to be re-thought because you don’t necessarily have to be a programmer or a developer to be a part of the tech community. Zainab, who runs a startup that conducts some of India’s best technology conferences, has no formal education or previous experience in programming, which is often seen as the basics of being a ‘technologist’. She comes from a background of politics, sociology and economics, as she says, “I’m not a programmer and I’m not apologetic about it because I don’t think you have to be a programmer in order to understand how technology functions or how to work with technologists.” In a space largely dominated by men today, Zainab runs a company that curates some of the best technology conferences, bringing together domain experts and enthusiasts from across the world to discuss and share new ideas and happenings in the developer and technology space.

Compiled by Joe Williams joe78662@gmail.com

wax eloquent

India can stand tall

Take a look at what our corporate leaders have to say about recent trends and their experiences in the business world

World needs access to the fastest-growing, largeeconomy India Strategy for decisions in Personal or Professional life

“My mother is my go to if I need help in decision making for personal matters. For official matters, I analyze, narrow down on the deciding factors. At times my gut instincts and emotions play an important role in making a decision, which mostly have worked in my and the team’s favour.”

“The world needs access to the fastest-growing, largeeconomy India. I’m no believer in protectionism and enjoy competing globally but I believe India can stand tall in a trade war. Today, India is a freemarket economy and can access global technology and capital to fuel its own innovative startups.

It’s resource-rich and can import commodities it lacks.”

Anand Mahindra, chairman, Mahindra Group Courtesy: https://www.businesstoday.in

Sudarshan Boosupalli,

Country Head, India and SAARC, Ruckus Networks Courtesy: http://businessworld.in

Cinema affects how India is perceived “We should be able to better communicate the importance and significance of the film industry not just in terms of economic importance, but also as how cinema lends itself to be a soft power. Cinema affects how India is perceived around the world. If these things are improved, then exponential gains are to be made.”

Siddharth Roy Kapur, President, Film and Television Producers Guild of India and co-chair, entertainment committee Courtesy: https://scroll.in

Disconnect, unwind and rejuvenate Success is not an instant thing

“Youth today look for a star everywhere. They think success is an instant thing. But all you get in two minutes is instant noodles—which is not good for health.

What I have achieved today has taken almost 20 years.”

Pankaj Tripathi, actor

Courtesy: https://www.thebetterindia. com/133177/pankaj-tripathi-interview/

14 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

“The conversation has moved from work-life balance to work-life fusion. We are in an environment where we are forever connected—socially, professionally and personally.

In such a scenario, it becomes imperative to periodically disconnect, unwind and rejuvenate.”

Sonia Huria, Senior Vice President & Head of communications & CSR,

Viacom18

Courtesy: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com

About India being different “Indian market has emerged differently than a market like the US. That doesn’t make it good or bad. It makes it different. The differences within what can be a really large market can lead to completely new opportunities we haven’t actually seen elsewhere.”

Rob Salvagno, Head of Corporate Development, Cisco Courtesy: https://yourstory.com

Best leadership lesson I learnt

“My first job was the steepest learning curve in my career and taught me that an assignment is never done until it is done.

Mistakes are stepping stones to successes, and those experiences taught me how to look at the bigger picture every time.”

Amit Sinha, COO, Paytm Mall

Courtesy: https://economictimes. indiatimes.com

Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity

Graduating into a social enterprise

“India has an incredible future ahead of it, and the next two decades are going to transform us into one of the world’s major economic powers, similar to the scale of China today.

This is a once-in-alifetime opportunity for both us Indians and people around the world to contribute towards, and profit from, the betterment of over a billion people. I think investors throughout the world should take advantage of this unique opportunity—I don’t know when another such opportunity will arise.”

“All social enterprises are for-profit organisations, like any other corporates, but they are not greedy for profits and they do not get into businesses which are not conducive for social betterment. In that sense, I will wish all the corporates of the world to become social enterprises.”

Vikram Chari, CEO and Chairman, SmartOwner

Courtesy: https://www.businesstoday.in

I am a very big fan of Indian culture

“I am a very big fan of Indian culture and I am always impressed by how, century after century, you have been able to preserve a sort of unstable stability, I’d say. It’s very difficult for the French people to understand because we love classical gardens where everything is organised in clean lines. Your culture is built more through curves and this unstable stability. That is very impressive, it’s part of your DNA and your strength, a capacity to always maintain different balances inside and outside.”

Emmanuel Macron, President, France

Courtesy: http://indiacsr.in

Courtesy: https://www.indiatoday.in

Bullish on the Indian story “We have been present in India since 1867 and since then, there have been ups and downs in the economy but we have been here right through this entire cycle. We are now especially positive about the way the economy is moving and we are here to stay with 22 factories over 20,000 people and almost 6,000 R&D professionals in the country. We are here to stay and be part of the growth aspirations that this country really can deliver to its people.”

Sunil Mathur, MD & CEO, Siemens India Courtesy: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Rules of fair competition Our design philosophy

“Modern independent India, nostalgia, egalitarianism and pride take centrestage in our design philosophy. Heroic re-appropriation of male presence through female form is the new direction for us. This is our anti-trend take on Indian couture where minimalism, austerity and refined drape forms challenge maximalism.”

Nikhil Mehra, designer Courtesy: https://www.femina.in

Ajit Pattnaik, General Manager and Head of Tailoring, Raymond Ltd

“Our decisions are technology-agnostic and taken in the interest of consumer. The system will weed the older technology out. People should, and in a way, they are coming on to new technologies very fast. This should have happened earlier. Market forces and competition will determine these things. I will only decide the rules of fair competition.”

R. S. Sharma, chairman, TRAI

Courtesy: http://indianexpress.com

You have to do your best “Coming to the finals is a very big thing rather than losing in the first round or second round. There are ups and downs in life so sometimes you might win, sometime you might lose. The most important thing is you have to give your 100%. Winning and losing are secondary but you have to do your best. You have to come back much stronger learning from your mistakes.”

P.V. Sindhu, badminton player, India Courtesy: https://www.indiatoday.in

Advice to the aspiring entrepreneurs

“Invest time in building your ability to communicate with others.

Approach your enterprise with the spirit of discovery, experimentation and innovation.

Most importantly, try and find, and/or connect your mission to a larger purpose. This will infuse your work with an energy and passion that will make it long-lasting and impactful.”

Ramji Raghavan, FounderChairman, Agastya International Foundation Courtesy: https://yourstory.com

Compiled by Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 15

Expert View

Beware! A new world order is in the making...

by S K Jha

(IRS (retd) and former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax)

T

The world is changing; China seeks to become the leader of the capitalist economy while the present leader, the US, is seemingly vacating its position. Terrorism is on the rise, and we are witnessing a hostile alignment encircling our nation. Are we ready for this new world order that is coming?

he world is witnessing some important changes particularly related to powerful countries.

These are not changes such as global warming and climate change. They are not changes brought about by nature, but by people running big countries. The world globalisation leader has become a protectionist economy, with President Donald Trump announcing harsh tariff on the import of important commodities like aluminium and steel. There was Brexit, and the much revered European Common Market got affected. There was a verbal duel between North Korean dictator Kim Jong and Donald Trump with the mounting threat of nuclear war, and now the surprising news that the two leaders will meet to thrash out differences. In China, the old rules existing for 35 years have been changed to make Xi Jinping lifelong President, after Mao. Xi is on his way to become a most powerful person. Communist country China seeks to become the leader of the capitalistic economy, while the present capitalist leader US is in the process of vacating its position. China seems to be getting more expansionist. And terrorism is still on the rise, and our neighbour Pakistan is emerging as leader in this sector. Let us ponder over some of these issues.

Globalisation and the concept of a cooperative world economy is at threat. The US is abdicating its place as the global leader and coordinator. Friendly countries, allies and even smaller economies are busy rewriting their economic paths. They cannot blindly rely upon the US now. For the US, the new policy is America first, and it is least concerned with WTO policies or even UN policies, agreed to by all countries, on climate change. Multilateral trade agreements entered into by the previous US governments are being broken by the Trump.

Short-sighted policy

The new policy of the US is apparently shortsighted as the biggest economy of the world 16 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

cannot grow in isolation. Inequality and problems in the world will affect it, as the US is what it is today through the confluence of mind and material from all over the world.

The original inhabitants of the US were poverty stricken Red Indians. The protectionist policy now being adopted by the US will seriously

affect it, as the old maxim cannot be ignored that poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere. The new erroneous policy of the US will change the face and complexion of international trade.

The one country which is enjoying the situation is China. The second biggest economy

of the world wants to usurp the position the US has been holding, and that is possible in the future only when US dithers. But the happiness of China may prove too premature as no country progresses economically unless the world progresses. The economy of China is export-oriented and its major buyer is the US. How can China progress if its major buyer is not purchasing or purchasing less from it?

China these days is busy with new trade agreements with many countries, but this will not help China as long as US continues to be the biggest economy, and it will remain so in the foreseeable future. China will do much better if it grows on its intrinsic strength and not by exploiting the economic weakness of smaller countries, as we are seeing these days through its policy in Africa and Asia.

The recent policy change in China regarding the selection of the president is really historic.

It will have many implications both for China and the world. Xi Jinping can now be President

for life which may have both good and bad impact. He may turn out to be a benevolent dictator or a bad autocrat. We all know that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is desired that he will do good both for China and for the world. He is a tall leader in his country as he is a nationalist and crusader against corruption.

Expansionist China

But at the same time the world and particularly neighbouring countries have serious reservations about him over his aggressive expansionist design.

He has converted islands in the South China Sea into his naval and army

bases. Some atolls have been transformed into artificial islands in the South China Sea for defence purposes, complete with an air base.

The South China Sea is the sea route used for maximum trade cargo of the world and the developing scenario there with Xi Jinping remaining President is really scary.

The neighbouring countries earlier were hoping that after 2023 when the new President takes office in China, things will improve but now that wishful thinking is gone. The South China Sea policy of China is all due to Xi Jinping and now he will continue for his lifetime.

For India the lifelong presidency of Xi Jinping may not be very good considering his active involvement in anti-India policies. We have recently seen what happened at Doklam. We are seeing what China is doing in our neighbouring countries to encircle us with Chinese bases there. Pakistan is a close ally of China with huge investments

by China in constructing roads and ports there. Pakistan has ceded part of our territory to China and China has gladly accepted it, disregarding our sovereignty on that land. Huge investment is also being made

by China in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Our friendly neighbours are now turning closer to China.

The new policy of the US is apparently short-sighted as the biggest economy of the world cannot grow in isolation.

Inequality and problems in the world will affect it, as the US is what it is today through the confluence of mind and material from all over the world

Hostile encircling

The changing situation is not good for us and this activity will continue with the continuance of Xi Jinping. China is increasing its defence budget and this is a matter of increased anxiety for us as there can be situation where we can have war on two fronts, both on the eastern and the western sectors. Normal reasoning says that China should have more friendly relations with India as we are a big market and a peaceful country, but instead it has chosen Pakistan as its friend which is a country in utter turmoil. The only inference can be that China wants to encircle us as we are competitors in this region.

Recently, the world witnessed the real threat of a big nuclear war with North Korea testing its nuclear arsenal of deadly long-distance missiles and even hydrogen bombs and issuing a threat to attack Japan, South Korea and even April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 17

Expert View the US. President Trump issued retaliatory threats of "finishing" North Korea. The world was waiting to see which country would blink first, but now a good anticlimax has taken place as the two leaders have decided to meet.

North Korea has given indications that they will freeze their nuclear arsenal and also limit it. The new development is good for the world.

The inference is that in international relationships there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies.

One natural question is, how is India dealing with the changes taking place in the world?

India has adopted the policy of caution. India has not reacted to what Donald Trump has said about higher import tariff on steel and aluminium. India knows that China has bigger exports to the US while our total export to the US is just 2% of our export. India has also not said anything on reciprocal trade actions with the US. We have a very strong bonding with the US. Donald Trump has been helping us on various issues, particularly on the issue of export of terrorism from Pakistan. On the global front, the US has stood behind India. We have to maintain this good relation without rubbing Trump too hard on trade matters, especially since China will anyway do it as it has bigger trade with the US. With China, we are dealing with each issue on its merits as we did in Doklam. We know that China may harm us and that it stands with Pakistan on issues relating to India, but at the same time our government always seeks China’s cooperation. We are strengthening our defence and our ties with countries who are not very close to China. Xi Jinping will remain president for life and we have to make ourselves constantly stronger to fight any situation emerging in the future. The stronger we become there will be less scope to fear from China, in spite of being encircled.

Changes will continue to come, some of which will be for the good while some may be bad. Countries which are strong will continue to grow despite some bad hiccups of change.

So we have to enrich ourselves with resources.

Neighbouring countries have serious reservations about Xi jinPing over his aggressive expansionist design.

He has converted islands in the South China Sea into his naval and army bases. Some atolls have been transformed into artificial islands in the South China Sea for defence purposes

18 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

We have to grow as a military power with all modern equipment. We have to invest in the well-being of our citizens with better education, health facilities and improvement in all parameters of the human index. We have to be culturally rich, better in sports and in scientific innovations. We have to been seen as a powerful country in the world but with a difference, as per our ancient philosophy that the world is one family.

We have a role

Can we achieve all this within reasonable time?

Yes, we can. The starting point will be raising resources, as for most endeavours we require money. Our present resources are not enough. China grew economically and that simultaneously helped it to become a military power as well. The problem with us is whatever resources we have even today are being lost in tax evasion, scams and frauds. Most of our people believe that it is their birthright to evade tax. We have just started a modern and efficient tax system by launching GST. Here also our innovative people have discovered loopholes and it has been reported by the government that there is a suspicion of leakage of `3,600 crore, in just six months. Banks are required to advance

loans so that the economy grows but here also there are several cases of reported frauds like in the case of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya, where taxpayer money has been looted and these culprits have run away from the country, making recovery very difficult.

Then we have a sizeable number of cases of scams and corruption where national wealth is robbed.

Our people have to change first and start thinking for the country to make the country strong to withstand any changes in the world.

First come the people and then comes the government. We wish to be strong without changing our habits, which will not help us to become stronger to meet the changes of the world. Our country has all the intrinsic qualities and potential to transform ourselves and be a great power in the world. Let us make the beginning today.

Changes in the world will come and go and a strong India will keep on being stronger.

CC

tadka

Diu leads India While leaders of 121 countries recently met in Delhi to give big push to PM Modi’s International Solar Alliance project, good news from Gujarat’s Diu island surprised everybody. For, leading the way for whole of India, Diu became the first destination to be fully run on solar power. The Union Territory today produces more than 100 per cent solar power. With a geographical area of 42 sq km, it has installed solar power plants across 50 acres of its land where it generates 13 MW of electricity from its solar facilities.

Pics: Anil

In those days, it used to take a very long time to make an artificial leg. Vijay’s friend, Major D. N. Singh, another battle casualty from Kumaon Regiment, was on the next bed. He was married with one child at that time. So we all became very good friends. When their wounds healed, both Vijay and Singh came out of the hospital. They used to walk on crutches, get into a taxi, come to our house at the Rajendra Sinhji Institute (RSI) and have food. My mother loved having them over —Daulat 20 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

Daulat and Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi

Vi ral jay O b ne

oi er

Wise & Dynamic Duo: 68

LT Ge

Cover Story

Wonderful In a world where it’s getting harder and harder for couples to stay

together, the golden jubilee couple—Lt General Vijay and Daulat Oberoi—show

how to live a life of pure joy, wit and togetherness.

They prove the point that you don’t have to be physically perfect to be loved because the best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard but are felt in the heart

By Pradeep Mathur

nd Vijay Daulat a olonel’s “C with the ner” of the Ban t Regimen

T

he story of Daulat and Lt General Vijay Oberoi looks straight out of a Bollywood film. In 1961, when Daulat first met Vijay, he was a young army officer of the ‘Jangi Paltan’ which had come to Pune for their peace tenure. At that time, Vijay was a very close friend of her brother Deelip (a senior executive with Mahindra & Mahindra who unfortunately passed away in 2006) but there was nothing between them which could even remotely indicate that six years later, she would be tying the knot with him.

However, fate clearly had some other plans.

During the 1965 Indo-Pak War, when Vijay got

severely wounded in a skirmish with Pakistani soldiers in Kashmir and was evacuated to the Command Hospital at Pune, seeds of ‘love’ in the times of war seem to have already been sown.

Sitting in the lush green lawns of their beautiful bungalow ‘Daulat’ in Panchkula and 51 wedding anniversaries later, when this extraordinary couple fondly recall how they fell in love which blossomed in the corridors of Pune’s military hospital, the warmth of their affection is palpable.

Born in Kolhapur (Maharashtra) when the Second World had ended, the early life of Daulat was unaffected by the violence and turmoil that Vijay’s early life had witnessed. Her father the late Major General D. A. Surve, a Maratha, was the younger brother of the Dewan (Prime Minister) of the erstwhile Kolhapur State. Her mother, the late Najmunissa, was the daughter of the Officer-in-Charge of all the Maharaja’s horses at the palace. Spread over a couple of acres, her father’s bungalow was close to the Maharaja’s Palace.

Surve was a much respected King’s Commission Indian Officer (KCIO) who had his military training at Sandhurst in the UK and was the first Indian Commanding Officer of 1st Battalion, the Maratha Light Infantry (Jangi

Paltan), in 1946, when it was serving in Japan as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces.

Due to the exposure of nuclear radiation while in Japan, Daulat lost her father Gen Surve, who died of leukaemia in 1951, she was just six.

Although, then, she still has vivid memories of her father. Her mother brought up her and her brother with the meagre pension she used to receive from England. Educated at St. Mary’s School and Wadia College in Pune, Daulat was the principal of a primary Army school at Secunderabad from 1977-79 and later, during 1991-93, she was the principal of the Army School Hisar.

An outdoor person, she used to play tennis and loved swimming and cycling in her younger days. She is fond of gardening, bird-watching and wild life and has always had pet dogs in her house. Currently she has a black Labrador—Pasha.

Love & War

So how did their love blossom? Narrates Daulat, “During War time, as is the custom among Army ladies, my mother, a typical Army wife, would visit the army hospitals to look after patients and give moral support to all war casualties and sometimes I used to accompany April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 21

Cover Story her. We of course knew Vijay because he was from the same Maratha Battalion, which was once commanded by my late father Maj Gen Surve.

So that bit of familiarity was there. But whether it was Vijay or anybody else from the Maratha Regiment or the other forces, we met them all. Sometimes I would also go to meet him with lots of my school friends. We used to cycle up to the hospital and meet Vijay. But how it developed into friendship is a long story because he had a pretty long stay in Pune.”

She continues, “In those days, it used to take a very long time to make an artificial leg. Vijay’s friend, Major D. N. Singh, another battle casualty from Kumaon Regiment, was on the next bed. He was married with one child at that time.

So we all became very good friends. When their wounds healed, both Vijay and Singh came out of the hospital. They used to walk on crutches, get into a taxi, come to our house at the Rajendra Sinhji Institute (RSI) and have food. My mother loved having them over. We would go to movies. Everybody in Pune saw army patients moving around on crutches, wheelchairs, watching a movie, going to restaurants because they all had a tough time as they were badly wounded during the War and needed limbs urgently.”

Does disability distract?

Didn’t she worry about the fact that Vijay was a disabled soldier? Pat comes her reply, “No. To me, he was a person. I didn’t think on the lines that he is minus anything. Looks didn’t matter much to me—the person mattered.’’

What was it that she liked about him?

Adds she, “Maybe the fact that he was always very cheerful and used to enjoy going out. He used to come to our place quite often and was very fond of my mother. Whenever he would come, we would go to movies, restaurants, have Chinese food. Even before he had lost his leg, he was my brother’s very good friend. So that connection was already there and my brother was very fond of him as well and was very happy that our friendship had turned into a liking for each other. So the reaction of my family was also very positive.”

So nobody objected to the two of you getting married?

“No, some of my mother’s friends would ask as to how could she allow me to marry 22 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

Daulat and Vijay with the erstwhile King of Bhutan Jigme Singye Wangchuck

I’m heading an NGO which works for underprivileged children. We’ve three chapters running—two in Chandigarh and one in Panchkula.

We’re teaching about 100 children and they’re doing well. My members are the teachers—Vijay a boy who has lost his leg and she would turn around and say that “My daughter has chosen him and wants to marry him. So, I won’t come in the way”. Daulat adds, “she was a very brave lady”.

Progressive parents

And what was the reaction of Vijay’s parents? “I think his parents were more worried about who’ll marry Vijay because in those days lots of engagements used to break when officers got wounded, lost limbs as the girl’s parents would not permit their daughters to get married. Some girls who wanted to marry despite the disabilities of their fiancée had to elope. So, there are two sides to everything.”

“Vijay’s parents were very progressive too. So, eventually we got married in 1967 and recently we celebrated the golden jubilee of our marriage

too,” she smiles with a twinkle in her eyes.

What were the early days of marriage like?

“They were very quiet for me because Vijay was posted to Delhi and was staying in an Army Mess. So, I came to Chandigarh and stayed with my in-laws. I was a free bird. His sister was studying at that time, so I had company. I learnt driving and we used to do lots of things together. So, for me, it was a very relaxed time as I came to know my in-laws also very well.

Then Vijay got posted to Pune and then it got very hectic.”

“It was while in Pune, my elder daughter was born. Fortunately, she was born when my mother was living in a flat next to ours and so she was a great support,” she recalls, adding, her second daughter “was born in Delhi and at that time my mother-in-law was with me. But life in the Army was very uncertain. Every three months, you’ve to shift somewhere. We didn’t have a house. So, it was really very difficult because you keep moving and trying to get an accommodation which was very difficult in those days. Yet I moved with Vijay wherever he was posted. We went with him even when he was

posted from 1981 to 1984 to Malaysia as a Defence Adviser. It was very nice. Then we also went with him to the USA. It was for a year-long course in the US Army War College. But our government is highly bureaucratic.

They said since it’s less than a year, we won’t pay for the family but we nevertheless went,” she laughs, adding that “USA is not all that expensive. Food is very cheap over there.”

So how did she bring up her daughters? “We always took them with us, even when we had to shift between an academic session! Sometimes we had to move from Andhra Pradesh to Madhya Pradesh to Delhi, but we managed and they’ve turned out to be very good human beings. My elder daughter Rashmi writes now.

She’s writing for Seema Mustafa’s The Citizen, a digital newspaper based in Delhi. My younger daughter, Manisha, is married and lives in Bhubaneswar.

Her husband has a family business.

She’s also managing very well. By the grace of God, our grandchildren, two granddaughters (Girisha and Shefali) and our grandson Mayank are doing well. Mayank is also trying to get into the Army and his sister, Shefali, younger to him by three years, is also keen for a career in the services and wants to appear for the CDS Exam. Girisha, is studying in America’s Cornell University.”

Understanding the underprivileged

What keeps her busy? Laughs Daulat, “I was a sportswoman who loved playing tennis but now I’m left with only walking and that’s my only exercise because I’m a homemaker. So, I spend a lot of time at home. I’ve a dog and a garden to look after and I’m doing a lot of voluntary work.

That keeps me busy. I’m heading an NGO which works for underprivileged children. They do go to school but we’re helping them with their studies. We’ve three chapters running—two in Chandigarh and one in Panchkula. We’re teaching about 100 children and they’re doing well.

My members are the teachers. We also run a stitching class.’’

What about her love for writing, sending notes and cards? Says she, “Nothing now. I used to love writing letters by snail mail but who looks at snail mail these days? Everybody says, WhatsApp karo, but I don’t enjoy that.”

Keeping the fire lit

With Daulat’s godmother Mrs Joe at

their residence GOC1Corps in Mathura Though they’ve a very successful married life, what really keeps it going? “I think through the years we’ve kept each other interesting and interested. We still crack jokes and laugh together,” Vijay says with a mischievous smile.

And what is her take on why today’s love marriages are going sour pretty early? “See, problems are everywhere but it doesn’t mean love Daulat with younger daughter Manisha (1991) marriages are bad and therefore they should be discouraged. I don’t think so. Our younger daughter has married into a Sikh family and there has never been a problem. But in the case of my elder daughter who, married someone Daulat with her dogs at “The Retreat,” residence of GOC-C, Shimla from UP, I don’t know why but things went wrong.”

Quips Vijay, “What she’s trying to say is that there is always some give and take in a marriage—some adjustments—you may not like some particular culture or you do something which the other person doesn’t like. So, this is fine and you can carry on. The main thing is, if there is a problem in a marriage and problems are always there, it doesn’t mean that you start packing your bags to go out of it.’’ result. If you go to play cricket, one batsman or bowler does not bring victory. It’s the whole team that brings results. It’s true in every sphere Giving space of life and the same thing applies to the corpoThe second aspect, Vijay continues, “In any marriage, both partners need their own space. rate world too. The other aspect, especially at And giving that space is not bad. You’re together the higher levels of the corporate world, is: they for 24 hours. Out of that, it is necessary for you should have a vision. How can we improve— to give an hour or so for yourself. It’s required. whether its profits, retail, HRD or whatever?

It helps. Stress levels go down. Another fact for The leader must constantly think: Whether marriage break-ups is that the patience level of people are happy working for him? Whether this generation is significantly low. A small arit’s time to give bonus to the employees? So, gument turns into separation very fast. This is you must have a Vision as to where are you gojust not good.” ing and you must have an Aim and that Aim must be pursued relentlessly—unless some huge boulder comes in between and you can’t Corporate climb it. In that case, you try to circumvent it calling and find a way. That is what Vision is all about,” Is there anything that he concludes. the corporate leaders can learn from the That being so, what really is the philosophy Army? “There are many that keeps their marriage going so beautifully? things but the foremost Daulat pauses for a moment and then says with is team work,” Vijay a smile, “My philosophy is not to get worked points out, explaining, up about anything. Try to be cheerful. Be ac“In the Army, it’s a team commodative and there are things one has to that produces results. accept in life and so take them with a pinch of One man can never salt and keep smiling,” she concludes with a produce the desired hearty laughter.

In the Army, it’s a team that produces results.

One man can never produce the desired result. If you go to play cricket, one batsman or bowler does not bring victory.

It’s the whole team that brings results —Vijay

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 23

Cover Story

Fighter forlife Getting wounded while fighting a war for the country is a professional hazard for any soldier. He usually has no control over the physical disability thus caused by a bullet, but what he definitely does get to choose is: How to turn this disability into his strength. Vijay Oberoi, then a captain, did exactly the same by conquering not only his disability but also fought all physical and mental barriers to become the Vice Chief, the second highest appointment in the over one million-strong Indian Army—virtually on a leg and a prayer! Even after retirement, he continues to inspire people by writing on defence-related topics, proving that human spirit cannot be thwarted by an accident, natural or man-made

By Pradeep Mathur Most of us take our lives for granted. Despite being physically fit and blessed with all material comforts, we keep complaining and finding excuses. And here is the former Vice Chief of the Indian Army, Lt General Vijay Oberoi, who had lost his right leg in the Indo-Pak War of 1965, just short of his 25th birthday. Post-hospitalisation, he had three options for his future. First was to be boarded out. Second was to opt for a change of regiment/corps so that he could serve in a softer job; and the third and the most challenging was to continue with his existing battalion-1 MARATHA LI of JANGI PALTAN—and carry on soldiering. He chose the third, knowing fully well that he would be competing with his peers and there would be no concessions just because he had lost a leg.

During his over 40 years of distinguished service, the General held highly prestigious appointments. Post-retirement also, Gen Oberoi keeps himself busy with lots of intellectual pursuits, prolific writing for newspapers and social work.

Besides being the Founder-President of the War Wounded Foundation set up to work towards meaningful rehabilitation of the war-disabled, he was also the Founder-Director (for five years, till 2007) of the Delhi-based Army think-tank, the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS).

Corporate Citizen took him on a walk down the memory lane with him reflecting on his on the four-decade long journey. Over to Gen Oberoi…

24 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

Growing up in turbulent times

I was born on September 29, 1941, in Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan), the then military headquarters of the British Indian Army’s Northern Command, when World War II was being fought bitterly in Europe, Africa and Asia. Within India also, the struggle for Independence was continuing with increased vigour. I can’t say if these warlike events had anything to do with my joining the army but they subconsciously affected me, though there was none in my family who was in the military.

My father was a banker who began his career from the bottom and rose to the top and retired as the Chairman of the Oriental Bank of Commerce. He was in a transferable job and so we kept moving from one place to another.

My first ‘defining moment’

Though I was too young at that time but I vividly remember the madness of partition I witnessed in 1947 when our huge country was arbitrarily cut into two pieces amidst unprecedented, mindless violence. We were in Kasur (a border town in Pakistan) at that time. On ac-

count of the large-scale violence including rioting, fires, massacres, rapes and loot, my father asked my mother to quickly take a train to Delhi with the children as he, being the in-charge, cannot leave the bank immediately and would join us soon.

Train to Delhi

While fleeing in the eerie silence of a massacre at Kasur railway station, I distinctly remember six or seven soldiers of the Army who were keeping the marauding mobs at bay. Eventually the train came to take us to Delhi with compartments full of the dead and the dying.

Though I never knew the regiment of those soldiers, their images stuck in my mind. On account of their dark skins and wiry but short stature, I thought they were Marathas and 14

Vi ral jay O b ne

oi er

LT Ge

Cover Story

In those days, there were only three professions for those wanting a job: either you became a doctor or an engineer or join the Army. I decided to join the Army for which my parents had no objection My war experience

years later when I was commissioned, I chose to join that very regiment—the Maratha Light Infantry. Decades later, they honoured me by selecting me as their ‘Colonel’, a singular honour for an infantry officer, and I was their ‘Colonel’ for over eight years.

My schooling

Though I didn’t go to any elite schools, two schools prepared me for the future challenges.

One was the Nazareth Academy in Gaya (Bihar) where I studied for about two years plus (195153). The other was Shri Ram Ashram School in Amritsar where my father was transferred as the Zonal Manager of the Central Bank of India. Both were co-educational but our teachers in Nazareth Academy were Irish nuns from America. So, their focus was on American and European History and Geography, English, Shakespeare (yes, we did the Merchant of Venice

in Class VI), the Old and the New Testament, and everything else.

On the other hand, the school of Amritsar was in complete contrast to the Gaya school. It was very traditional where bhajans and songs from Tagore’s Gitanjali were sung during Morning Assembly. So, this amalgam of cultures helped me immensely in my later life. Since I was a good student, I passed my Matric in 1955 with flying colours.

Entry into the Army

In those days, there were only three professions for those wanting a job: either you became a doctor or an engineer or join the Army. I decided to join the Army for which my parents had no objection. But when I applied for the NDA, they said, you’re too young. So, I had to wait till I became old enough to clear the selections. In the interim, I joined the Khalsa College in Amritsar and cleared my FSc or Intermediate (Science).

Thus, in June 1957, I joined NDA at Khadakvasla, near Pune, and passed out in June 1960; then went to IMA in Dehradun, and was finally commissioned in June 1961 in the Maratha Light Infantry Regiment. So, that’s how my journey into the Army started.

In August/September 1961, we came to Pune but within a few months, Operation Vijay to liberate Goa started. General J.N. Chaudhuri, who later became the Chief, mobilised our Paltan to liberate its Portuguese enclave of Daman, a smaller entity of the troika of Goa, Daman and Diu. While bigger units went for Goa, our battalion liberated Daman after a short and sharp operation. I was the Intelligence Officer in this operation. This was the first War I participated in, and we captured all the Portuguese prisoners, though we had some casualties too. Thereafter the battalion moved back to Pune.

The India-China War of 1962: The action in Daman took place in December 1961 and early next year, the war clouds from China started gathering. So, when the 1962 War with China commenced, our battalion was moved from Pune to Bhuj (Kutch) in September. I moved with the advance party where our battalion assumed operational responsibility of the entire Kutch border with Pakistan. After serving for two years, the Jangi Paltan moved to the high-altitude area of Ladakh in 1964 and by that time, I had become an Adjutant. We did many things that were not attempted earlier on account of a phobia about high altitude, including Malakhamb in snow!

We remained in Ladakh till the 1965 War with Pakistan.

Indo-Pak War of 1965: When Pakistan launched its Operation Gibraltar in August 1965, sending Pakistani Army personnel disguised as infiltrators, my Paltan, along with the entire brigade, was moved from the dizzy heights of Ladakh into the Srinagar Valley to counter them. At that time, there were hardly any regular troops in the Valley. So, the brigade was needed. We carried out several highly successful operations at the sub-unit level against the infiltrators. This was the time when the famous Haji Peer was captured and a new headquarter called Sri Sector was setup and we formed part of it.

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 25

Cover Story

Attending the last meeting with British Maratha Officers’ Association in London

Pakistan’s Operation Gibraltar was a failure.

We not only neutralised many and cleared the Valley, but also captured large chunks of territory of Pakistan.

Pakistan then launched a conventional attack in the Chhamb Sector, which was within the Line of Control, thinking that India would also confine its operations within the disputed area of J&K. However, Indian Army launched attacks across the international border.

It was in the first phase of the War that in one of the search-and-destroy operations, I was severely wounded. This was on 23rd August 1965 in the Dachigam Forest area during the first phase of the war.

The watershed event that changed my life

On August 23, 1965, I moved out with my column with the task of searching two villages and the Dachigam Forest top for infiltrators and neutralise them. We found no infiltrators in the two villages. The column then started climbing a forest trail to the top.

When we were just a little short of the top, infiltrators ambushed our column, and the very first bullets they fired hit me in my right thigh.

The rest of the column immediately took positions and a very brave officer, 2nd Lt A.G. Raut, charged on the infiltrators as per the anti-ambush drill we’ve been trained in. It was a small skirmish. We took counteraction swiftly and within five minutes, the operation was over, as the infiltrators ran away into the jungle with their wounded and the dead.

When the dust settled, we had two casualties, both officers. One was 2nd Lt Raut and the other was me. We had only one stretcher, so our comrades carried Raut and me alternately on-and-off the stretcher and on a makeshift one.

During that charge, Raut got a burst of bullets on the left arm. Though a bandage was tied but we failed to notice that the bullets had gone into his lungs.

When we reached the hospital, the doctor told my Commanding Officer that Lt Raut had died and I was about to die as I had lost a lot of blood. However, quick work by the doctor kept me going till the surgeon arrived and an emergency surgery performed. The lone bullet which had hit me had severed the main femoral artery, which takes the blood down to the foot and toes. It could not be rejoined, so the two ends were sutured and it was hoped that the smaller arteries would take over and feed the blood to the leg and the foot. But it didn’t happen and the lower leg soon developed a gangrene, commencing from the toes.

In the meantime, I was evacuated to the military hospital in Delhi. Eventually, 14 days after I was wounded, my right leg was amputated a little

Vijay receiving citation from Deputy Commandant at US Army War College (1989)

below the knee. Two follow-up operations were performed at the military hospital in Pune and six months later, after all the wounds had healed, the process of fitting an artificial limb started at the Artificial Limb Centre (ALC), also at Pune.

Another couple of months were spent in getting the first artificial leg and thereafter I flew to Srinagar to meet the battalion. They were moving back to Ladakh. I came back to ALC, got a second leg and finally the year-long hospitalisation in Pune was over. These were also the days of the first slow moves towards a blossoming love story which culminated in my wedding!

Romance on crutches

People sometimes wonder how I remained cheerful and didn’t let my disability hold me back in any way. The foremost factor was the girl with whom I had fallen in love while in hospital at Pune. My elder daughter, Rashmi, who is a journalist in Gurgaon, called it a ‘romance on crutches’ in a ‘middle’ she wrote for a newspaper.

As for my ladylove, she was the daughter of the first Indian commanding officer of my battalion, the late Maj Gen D.A. Surve, and his wife, Mrs Vimla Devi Surve. They named her Daulat and that is what she has been to me—wealth—in all

Being received in Somalia by Indian UN Force Commander at Mogadishu airport

tary Intelligence Directorate at Army Headquarters in Delhi. When my two years were nearing completion, I requested for a posting back to the battalion, so that I could command a company.

It took some convincing because the prevailing view was that disabled officers would not be able to function in the field but finally I succeeded and was posted back to my Paltan in Pune where preparations were in full swing to celebrate the bicentenary of the battalion. I became the secretary of the committee and got actively involved in all facets of the celebrations.

This reluctance to post disabled personnel in field units continued till I commanded an infantry battalion about ten years later and for my distinguished command of the battalion, I was awarded the Vishisht Sewa Medal (VSM).

During the intervening years, I cleared the examination for Defence Services Staff College at Wellington, near Ooty (Tamil Nadu). I was among the first 20 who sat for the examination. In November 1971, when the military confrontation leading to the Indo-Pak War for the liberation of Bangladesh had begun, I was posted to the Military Operations Directorate (MOD) in Delhi, a very prestigious appointment from Wellington.

Though I was too young at that time but I vividly remember the madness of partition I witnessed in 1947 when our huge country was arbitrarily cut into two pieces amidst unprecedented, mindless violence

26 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

respects. Along with her mother who was always an esteemed guest of our battalion, Daulat used to visit Pune’s hospital to give moral support to all battle casualties. We fell in love and eventually got married in January 1967.

Post-hospitalisation life

At that juncture of my life, I was a ‘Barsati Major’, with a little over four years commissioned service to my credit. I was posted as Staff Officer in Mili-

Tryst with Sam Bahadur

During the 1971 War, I was holding the Bangladesh Desk and thus all the action from Army Headquarters was passing through me. That was the time when I interacted with the legendry Army Chief, Gen Sam Manekshaw, as I was handling the East Pakistan operations and was directly connected on the hotline to the Headquarters Eastern Command. Although, meticulous in detail, he was very informal and unconventional

Vijay interacting as DGMO with UN officers in Somalia

family. Although during my long tenure (1981-84), Delhi’s relations with Kuala Lumpur were not so good on account of India’s stance relating to Kampuchea, at the military level, they were excellent as I arranged many visits by the top brass of both countries. I also organised numerous visits by our naval ships and submarines to Malaysia.

Back to MOD

On my return from Malaysia, I was posted back to Military Operations (MO) Directorate that I had left in 1974 but didn’t stay too long there as I got promoted successively as a Colonel and then a Brigadier in quick succession and was sidestepped to Military Training Directorate in the Section dealing with army doctrines and concepts.

Conceptualising Brass Tacks

With Gen Pervez Musharraf at Islamabad during the Track-II Diplomacy

and would often sit on my table to interact with officers at the Command Headquarters.

In command at last

As a Brigadier in 1986, I played a key role in writing, planning and conducting the biggest operational exercise ever conducted by Indian Military—Exercise Brass Tacks I—which was a very big map exercise, though kept top secret.

Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister and Gen K. Sundarji the Army Chief at that time. For my contribution, I was awarded the Ati Vishisht Sewa Medal (AVSM) and immediately after the exercise ended in 1987, I moved to command an infantry brigade in Jalandhar. This was the time when the Sikh militancy was at its peak in Punjab. So, I spent most of my time on the border.

Left for America

I stayed in MO Directorate for two years and then requested for going back to my battalion.

Again, after lot of convincing, I was posted to my battalion which had moved to Nahan in Himachal Pradesh. Meanwhile I became the Second-in-Command of the battalion. Later, I moved to the newly-formed 18 Battalion of the Regiment at Belgaum. Our first Commanding Officer was Lt Gen M. A. Zaki (who used to be the Advisor to the Governor of J&K from 199396). On completing my tenure, I was posted as an instructor of the War College at Mhow, a military training station near Indore.

After two years of an exciting command tenure that included my participation in Exercise Brass Tacks IV, I was selected by the Army Chief, Gen V. N. Sharma, to attend the prestigious US Army College Course in America. I took the family with me for this year-long course where I did well and made many friends with whom we’re still in touch. On my return, I was again posted back to Mhow as an instructor. However, I had hardly taken over a house that the then Chief wanted me back in MO Directorate and so in just two months, I was back in Delhi as Deputy Director General Military Operations, busy in house-hunting again!

Making it big in Malaysia

How I became Vice Chief

Within a year, however, I was selected to represent the Army abroad, as the Defence Advisor (Military, Naval and Air) at our High Commission at Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). After doing a language course in Bahasa Malaysia in Delhi, I moved to Malaysia in December 1980 with my

After that I was posted to head the Army Training Command in Shimla where again I did two yearplus and then came to Chandimandir on October 1, 1999 to assume the charge of the Western Command as its head. I had thought that this would be my last posting as I would attain the retirement

age of 60 years during this tenure but meanwhile a new Chief, Gen S. Padmanabhan, was appointed and he said, “I want you as my Vice Chief!”

My protests were in vain and on October 1, 2000, we took our respective appointments on the same day, he from Gen V. P. Malik and I from Lt Gen Chandra Shekhar, the outgoing incumbents.

On September 30, 2001, I finally retired as the Vice Chief after a service of over 40 years and headed for our newly-constructed home, DAULAT, at Panchkula, near Chandigarh. It was a long way up from the rank of a captain, when I had lost my leg in the 1965 War.

Post-retirement blues

I’ve always believed that once you reach the rank of an Army Commander or Commander-in-Chief, you’ve reached the zenith because becoming the Army Chief is a matter of your date of birth. So, once I retired, I didn’t want a job.

I stayed here in Panchkula and started writing on security-related matters for various publications.

In 2003, when Gen N. C. Vij became the Army Chief, he rang me up and said, “I want you to setup a think tank of the Army,” and that’s how I founded the Centre for Land Warfare Studies. I was its founder director for five years but left it in 2007 on account of serious differences on issues of autonomy!

Since I’ve always been concerned about the war disabled personnel of the armed forces, 15 years ago, I founded an NGO, War Wounded Foundation, of which I’m the President. We don’t get any grants from the government but run it by donations received from corporate houses, trusts and philanthropists. It also keeps me busy.

My philosophy of life

I believe in the theory of Karma because Karma is Dharma. I also believe that you must always have a zest for life and a positive and caring attitude because that’s what matters in the end. mathurpradeep1@gmail.com

CC

tadka

All work, no play We always knew we were an overworked lot, but this just confirms it. A recent study

by British Airways has found that a vast majority of Indians are not utilising their holidays allowance due to work pressures, often fearing they will be seen as unprofessional. Conducted with 2,006 respondents in India between December 20 2017 and January 4 2018, the study reveals that 65 per cent of employed adults have had leftover holiday allowance at the end of last year. Is this bad, or very, very bad?

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 27

CII Manufacturing Summit

Integrating data-driven ap The world is changing rapidly and now Smart and Innovative are definitions driving the way organisations work. This shift forms an important pillar in driving Manufacturing Excellence (ME) in future. There are organisations, which are actively pursuing this path. The gains are multifold and can bring radical shifts in the way organisations and even routine work is managed.

CII Manufacturing Conclave conducted a riveting session recently at Westin, Pune, where corporate leaders from leading organisations came together to share their experiences and thoughts on Big Data and digitisation. The panellists for the session were Abhay Pendse, (Moderator), Co-convenor, Forum on Operational Excellence & Vice President & Head – Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Shindewadi works); Mandar Garge, Head – Digital and Analytics, Great Software Laboratory; S. C. Suneja, Chief Executive Officer, JBM MA Auto Pvt. Ltd.; and Satish Kumar, Head-Quality, Adient India. Corporate Citizen brings you the excerpts from the session...

By Vineet Kapshikar Abhay Pendse: Nowadays, we hear a quite a lot about Big

Data and we hear a lot about data security. Generally, when we talk about operational excellence, we restrict ourselves to the factory automation and to the quality level. However, without data being digitised, where we are now and how to go about it in the future will depend on how are we able to implement the technological advancements. We never see data as an asset. We do not see data as something which can benefit us, and we do not know how it can help us to transform our business by the proper use of data.

Mandar Garge: I head the digital analytics business at

Great Software Laboratory (GSL). The digital journey is in four stages: data digitisation, process digitisation, digital optimisation and digital transformation. In the first two stages, maximum companies are lying today. Which means that you are having data but you are not using it wisely. You are using the data for the convenience but not using it intelligently to make your processes better, which in return will increase your top or bottom-line. You need to jump across the tipping point because that’s where you start looking at data across your already digitised processes for more intelligence, more insights and to make your operations better.

There is a term called MIDAS, it stands for Manufacturing Industry Digital Advancement Score. It is a score 28 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

measuring the digitisation level across five different sectors. The first and the key one is the operational behaviour, which means, how digitally driven you are. How seriously is your organisation implementing digital technology, and are you imposing on the top-down approach? Are you changing the mindset of your organisation at all levels to embrace digitalisation? Second is data digitisation, which is converting your data to application-based data. Third is process digitisation; here, your business processes are converted to applications and software application-driven processes. Fourth is digital optimisation, in which already digitised processes are leveraged for the data to make some important decisions, which will take you little advanced in the journey of digitisation. Fifth is digital transformation; it is nothing but data optimisation, which will help you to

proach to manufacturing

"We helped our client to cross the tipping point. They had all the digitisation in the place, all the processes were digitised. We stepped in and helped to leverage their own systems to get intelligence to make the system faster" - Mandar Garge

make your operations better, faster, and save your operational costs and this transformation will help you create new business models, new customer satisfaction models and new ways to leverage data.

I will give two examples wherein we used digitisation to solve the problems of our clients.

We had a US-based client who was into manufacturing of medical devices and drugs manufacturing. Here, the quality control is much different and stringent as compared to manufacturing industry, consumer products and other types of products. The government imposes hefty fines if you don’t take care of the customer complaints. The complaints could range from being life-threatening to the medical device being too costly for a customer. Every complaint registered after the deployment of the product until the end April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 29

Pics: Yusuf Khan

Pannellists (from left to right): Satish Kumar, Abhay Pendse (Moderator), Mandar Garge, S. C. Suneja

CII Manufacturing Summit of the product’s lifecycle has to be in a specific manner. Now in this scenario, think about the job of quality head—he has to ensure that there are no bottlenecks. He doesn’t know exactly where the bottlenecks are, which complaints are to be fixed within 30 days and report to FDA, how many complaints are two days away from the deadline, etc.

Now, every business process is digitised. The data in those systems is not being looked across in a unified manner. What we did for them is, consider complaint decision path, we came in and did a discovery exercise and looked at the business processes and the top parameters and figured out top 20 systems from which we have to extract data. We created a big database data warehouse for them, which had data analysis, data ingestion and data models, which helps them to trace the life of a complaint right from when a complaint comes to the complaint system until it goes to the FDA’s report.

Due to all of this, the supervisor’s job has become extremely easy. Because he can look at certain dashboards and say, that this certain complaint is stuck here, I need to ask to John.

John has four complaints with him, which are two days away from the deadline. Earlier, it took 45 days for the intelligence to tell where the problems were. Now it started happening every single day.

Our client started looking at the cost aspect of the recall, because recall is the a problem in this sector. If a device reports a fatal problem, for its patients, entire lot has to be destroyed. If you don’t get cost analysis of that and if you don’t have analysis mechanism, which tells what defects are caused by design issues and what lots are gone to which customers. All this information is in SAP system and PNM systems. All that was brought back together and life was simplified.

What were the benefits? Bottlenecks were easily detected and you can trace them and remove them. Getting alerts and notifications in real-time is now possible. The audit tail of the entire defect resolution happened. Therefore, order was brought to chaos. All the systems, which had a data modelling in between, and then you have multiple layers of people looking at dashboards for their own benefit and the top level executives and VPs could actually see in one, unified manner.

We helped them across the tipping point.

They had all the digitisation in the place, all the processes were digitised. We stepped in and helped to leverage their own systems to get intelligence to make the system faster. Seventy per cent gain was achieved in the operational efficiency and 200 times faster resolution rate and error free operations were achieved, which was a game changer for this industry. Because they realised that what could happen when you start looking at data integration. It is not only 30 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

about big data, even if I have small data, if I look across multiple systems it is going to tell me lot of things that I don’t know today. I am trying to say is that look at data across servers, look at data integration points and then the real integration will come out.

Second example is of Voice over IP (VoIP). A client who is into VoIP manufacturing came to us. VoIP is a device, which you connect to your home broadband; it is not a manufacturing example but how data has helped anything which is in operation. These devices are generating huge amounts of data, which was sent to server farms.

Server farms have different servers tracking different kinds of data. You need human intervention even after process is being digitised. As data was on these servers, the costs were high. You needed to look what problems are there, when a customer used to call and say my device went down. Firstly, I would have to encounter that problem and then support engineer used to fix it. Troubleshooting used to happen by looking at 20 different logs from five different servers, putting them in a script then getting some output, using that output in some other scripts to get another output and so on. So defect resolution time took 2-4 days and finding the problem took another four hours. It was realised that many of the problems are recurring. For example, when I find something called A in my device logs and something called as B and C and A, B and C are happening in the sequence within the span of two minutes. But I am spending same amount of time in same problem and I am spending same amount of time finding problems. So we stepped in and we created log analytics.

In those log analytics, every device is being logged, we built in correlations, we built in patterns, and we built easy configurability of defining a problem. What is a problem? For example, a device has spit out an event A, event B happens after event A, event C happens after event B and all of them happen in a two second window. I know that this is the problem definition and is configured in the log management system and as soon as event C occurs in the sequence. We have a notification that a problem has occurred.

Look at the benefits, before the customer picks up the phone and calls us, we are aware of the problem and the engineers have started to fix the problem. The customer success rate was extremely high and human errors were eliminated because everything was automated, machine learning could be brought in, because you know what patterns to be detected, the history of the patterns and so on.

Later two things happened, optimisation and transformation. Optimisation, because, earlier it took four days to find the problem and two days to fix the problem. Now, it took a few minutes to find the problem and a few minutes to an hour to fix the problem. As a result, the customer success rate was high. And about the customer success satisfaction, they got operationally optimised and transformation because customer satisfaction went up.

We helped them cross the tipping point. GS labs are helping companies with log analysis. If devices are spitting out logs, they can be brought to servers. The digitising information and intelligence is what you need to look at.

Satish Kumar : I am representing Adient In-

dia. I will share my experience with digitisation.

From manufacturing standpoint, we need to understand three points: data, information and decision. How do we capture the data, how the data is converted into information and how the

information is driving the decision. Whenever we talk about digitisation, it is about converting data into information where digitisation helps to do it. It enables a data point to convert into information.

Most of the times, what we lack in industries is that we have multiple data points but we don’t know what information the data point is telling to us. It may be even in excel files, it may in records or it may be in some other applications. Unless we understand information, maybe in Mandar’s terminology it is called the intelligence. So the information is used to derive from data points. We need to convert data into information by multiple methods. Digitisation according to me, is one important method; it can help to draw information as quickly as possible. Now, once you have the information, it has to be accurate, which enables the decision making process. It can drive process improvements or optimisation of the processes so you need to make a decision based on the information you derive. What I am saying is after you digitise, you need to optimise the process so data, information and the decisions are all coordinated with digitisation, optimisation and transformation.

The decision sometimes leads to a big transformation, sometimes it can change the perspective. For example, which are the products we need to sell more and which are the products we need to sell less. Which areas we need to focus more where we are not leading, etc. There can be multiple decisions based on the information what we derive.

Coming to Aident India, the organisation moved towards in terms of converting data into information and information into decision-making process. This has resulted in significant amount of operational improvements. For example, I would say, I can open my laptop and see what is happening in my Bengaluru plant, at this time. This was not the case two years before.

"Most of the times, what we lack in industries is that we have multiple data points but we don’t know what information the data point is telling to us.

We need to convert data into information by several methods" - Satish Kumar

You will try to understand what the problem is and then do the improvements. By digitising, I can communicate the feedback immediately to the team and say, this is the problem we are facing and this is what we need to do. So it helps us significantly, in terms of operational efficiencies and productivity improvements from that standpoint. That is from an operational standpoint or a process standpoint. But once you integrate all this data, from process, from functions, to dashboards, then it would lead to major decision processes. The data can help you to take operational improvements as well as drive strategic decisions also. We need to convert data into information and information to decision-making to become more efficient.

S. C. Suneja: What does data mean? Normally,

it looks to be a very simple subject. There is data available, we must try to process it and try to get something positive out of it. When we think of how to get this data, how to use it and take its advantage in manufacturing, it becomes a question, what is to be done and what is not to be done.

We have learnt that as a part of the manufacturing process there is a raw material coming as an input, there is a processing machine, there is some inspection to be done, there is a delivery, which has to go to the customer, and there is logistics involved in this. Putting all together, how do we make it to the digitisation or the basic data integration, how do you work on it? Way to see this is the feasibility for it. Yes, there is automated inspection for metal handling, how the shop floor movement happens, condition and maintenance of equipment and use of RFID for our inventory. Thereby, we are looking at the advantages. What we could harness over here is, in terms of quality, productivity enhancement, depletion of resources, many a times we have a resource lying within the plant, within the group.

We don’t know but data enables us to do what we are not able to do and how to use data in a better way.

We are manufacturing parts for the automotive industry. There are many critical parts, where a single defect could lead to hold-up of one particular vehicle and that also costs in terms of customer dissatisfaction and huge rejections could happen. We use more than 2,500 pallets for our distribution of supplies to various customers across different locations within the Pune region. Right from Mahindra to Tata to VW, Fiat and so on. We are sending many pallets and vehicles are going along. So what do we do? Many a time, vehicle is stuck up somewhere, the driver is taking his free time. So taking care of that, what we have done is using RFID in the system, wherein we are assimilating our data. We also use GPS tracking. I will give an example of how GPS tracking works. When

"What does data mean? Normally, it looks to be a very simple subject. There is data available, we must try to process it and try to get something positive out of it. We don’t know but data enables us to do what we are not able to do" - S. C. Suneja customer says that his vehicle has not reached, we check our system and we say that vehicle is at your gate. That is the advantage of the technology, when we look at and practically, we are able to manage the working in a better and faster way. Sometimes drivers switch off their phones, so we can’t trace where is the vehicle, but with the help of GPS, we are very sure that the things are in place. So that is the way, the digital technology has helped us. But there are challenges to the availability of the technology at right cost, how can it be really implemented, some of the skills needed to use the technology and the compatibility of the machines also. vineetkapshikar@gmail.com

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tadka

Mumbai and Delhi airport ranked high on global scale Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport have been ranked number one by the Airports Council International (ACI), and toppled ranking for Beijing and Shanghai Pudong airports which tied for number 2 positions. Both Mumbai and Delhi airports emerged top winners handling 40 million passengers each year.

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 31

Interview

HR

to shine

bright

embracing technology

Technology boom in Human Resource is inevitable, agrees Dinesh Bhojwani. Dinesh Bhojwani, the Head-Distribution HR, at Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. Ltd, states, “The future of HR is very bright that is only if we embrace technology,�. Born in Indore, it seems like HR was always in his blood. A Kendriya Vidyalaya student, Dinesh pursued his MBA in Human Resources Management from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore. A movie buff and an ardent fan of Usain Bolt, Dinesh, spoke widely about the introduction of technology, artificial intelligence, career opportunities and how is the current world different from the future. From being the Regional Manager, HR with ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd to presently working with Star Union, Dinesh has come a long way. While his experience speaks for himself, he urges the millennials to stay focused and embrace technology for their bright tomorrow. In a candid interview with Corporate Citizen, he spoke about the boom of IT in HR and its future, and the movies that keep him on his toes

By Ekta Katti 32 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

Elaborate on the role of IT in HR.

IT has been extremely helping in carrying out business in HR. Because data analysis is helping businesses to identify the gaps. With the advent of this data, it is helping HR in decision making. Attrition in insurance is huge which is why it becomes important to understand the data. And if the HR professionals don’t assess the data, most of the decisions would be gut-based. Therefore I think they have formally started teaching data and analytics as a part of their mainstream curriculum.

Presently, there are tools in the market deployed by the HR professionals to analyse information and data. The importance of data analysis is manifold. Mainly, it helps in right decision making. It is important to take right decisions in business of HR.

What kind of software or technology is used in your current company?

At HRMS, we are using the software called Ramco.

It involves production of data and then thin-slicing it. My organisation currently is a home for around 2,800 employees who are spread all across the country.

Therefore, it becomes very important for us to stay connected using technology. So, we have one-way communication tools with people which on the handheld devices like mobiles. Mobiles comes in handy as most of the people are in sales. Apart from this we are also contemplating on how do we leverage the digital revolution both on business and on the people front.

We are continuously trying to innovate as to how do we leverage technology to ease communication with the farthest employee in the field and to facilitate transactions using technology in the people space. I do agree that there are plenty of cons—some say that the advent of technology will eat up plenty of jobs, but there is a recent survey that says there will be 2.3 billion job opportunities by the end of 2022 in this space. This of course will be supported by technology and AI.

What do the success and growth of the company depend on?

According to me it certainly depends on the people. Why people? It is because we do not deploy any machines, we hire people and focus on their development. Hence the growth entirely depends upon how the organisation shapes people and vice-versa. Plus, with the dearth of employable talent, it becomes ever so important to look after them (people) hence it becomes imperative to manage the talent well.

While hiring, what are qualities you seek in the employees?

We hire people who appear to be fairly independent and empower them. They are then entrusted with the responsibility to go out in the field and meet the stakeholders. People who are able to cherish autonomy and feel accountable for the responsibility entrusted with them. The entire assessment process is based on the empowerment and accountability principle. In addition to the aptitude and attitude the focus is also the person’s EQ especially for the supervisory roles. Hence selfawareness, self-regulation and empathy become very April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 33

Interview retention, growth and retention of right talent, i.e., keeping the right employees engaged is the key.

What is the importance of advertisements when it comes to life insurance?

Advertisements do play a role. But what becomes important is getting the interface with customers. Rather, I feel, the brand name plays an important part. However, an established and well-known brand like ours doesn’t need the conventional ways (ads) to reach out.

To get motivated is easy, but to stay motivated is difficult. Who inspires you to keep doing well in life?

Personally, Usain Bolt (Jamaican sprinter) inspires me a lot. I have gone through most of the available literature on him. He hails from a very small town. I admire him for his journey and most importantly, his speed, precision, performance and the preparation behind performance.

Somebody who takes pressure with ease and is a man of big occasions.

“The biggest challenge is finding employable talent. Another being, several changes in the last few years at industry level, although that helps us to self-regulate and self-control. With changes of regulatory level, the entire ecosystem within the industry changes” important. While hiring employees in supervisory roles, empathy helps both in dealing with team members and also in dealing with money and stakeholders. Ours is very competitive world; hence, it becomes important for success that the employees are self-motivated.

How seriously are the exit interviews taken and what is the aftermath of it?

We take exit interviews on or before the employee is exiting the system and once again after the settlement is done. It is aimed at understanding what triggered them to leave the company. Apart from this our hiring managers visit various platforms to check the voice of the employee. Also, data plays a very critical role. If I am a manager and I see continuous attrition in my team, this can be attributed to the managerial style after careful examination of the data and information available.

How is HR for life insurance different from others? And what are the challenges that this industry faces?

The challenges in fact keep us on toes. The biggest challenge is finding employable talent. Another being, several changes in the last few years at industry level, although that helps us to self-regulate and self-control.

With changes of regulatory level, the entire ecosystem within the industry changes. At a much micro level 34 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

Seems you are a movie buff. Tell us more about your love for movies.

Another thing that drives me are movies. They are a great source of inspiration. So, I make a point to watch a couple of movies per week. Awakenings, Frank and Robot, Godfather I, II & III, Ex_Machina, Elysium, Forrest Gump, Cast Away, Invictus are some of the movies that I look up to. I am a huge fan of Robert De Niro. Intern is another movie that features him (Robert), based on very relevant concept.

What are the industry expectations from the millennials?

Millennials are smart. Focus and concentration is of utmost important. Technology has its pros and cons.

Millennials should understand its value and make use of it in the right way. Even we were the gen-next back then.

It's an evolution that nobody can stop.

What, according to you, is the future of HR?

The future of HR is very bright, that is only if we embrace technology. The world is shifting from human resource to talent management. Another thing that HR was lacking is business. HR has now started understanding and taking part in the business. It becomes important that you travel with business.

What is the highest point in your life? Have you achieved it yet?

Over the years, I have learnt a great deal. My highest point in life would be the time when I start giving back to the society.

In my case, I would like to return this appreciation in the favour of education. I haven’t reached that point yet, but I am certainly working towards it. Also, I feel engaging with the millennials is an important thing as they are future of the country. Counselling them in the right direction is crucial.

What’s your philosophy in life?

I have always believed in doing my work. My work is my passion. ektaakatti@gmail.com

Be ready for the future At the recent business convention, Dinesh Bhojwani, gave an inspiring talk to gathered students, wherein he informed the students how we should learn to co-exist with technology, embrace it and also stay focused on the future prospects. Excerpts from the session

T

imes are ever changing and the only constant thing in life is, change, stressed Dinesh Bhojwani, Head-HR, Star Union Dai Ichi Life Insurance, at the recently, concluded business convention in Pune. “We need to embrace change, and be ready for the future,” informed Bhojwani.

The convention opened new horizons where the PGDM students got an opportunity to interact with and learn from the industry leaders. At the seminar Bhojwani spoke about automation, weaponry (atomic and warfare), and human rights (freedom, privacy and professions).

Future prospects

Being a corporate bigwig, Bhojwani explains they are living in VUCA world (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity). “Most of the jobs are taken away by technology. However, as we live in the VUCA world, technology will create enough and more work opportunities for us humans,” he informed. Further adding, “With the advent of technology, the world is changing, not taking away a person’s wisdom and experience will also play a big role.

With the available data, companies are starting to understand attrition better, as millennials are leaving their jobs for greener pastures. “Technology in HR is playing a big role. It does not mean that technology is taking over it. When it comes to counselling, none but humans will perform the task better,” he said, as the students were mesmerised with the future prospects.

Talking about the concept of singularity in Artificial Intelligence, Bhojwani said, “The thought of machines learning and repairing themselves is terrifying. Although, technology is taking over, the space that is left for humans is, in arts, creativity and imagination.”

Bhojwani was quite intrigued as the students has seen most of the movies which spoke volumes of technology. He also informed that being emotionally intelligent (EQ) will keep the millennials in the race of future. “EQ is highly irreplaceable,” he said.

Social networking

“The thought of machines learning and repairing themselves is terrifying.

Although, technology is taking over, the space that is left for humans is, in arts, creativity and imagination”

As we co-exist with technology, the social media boom has changed the world. With over millions of the people glued to them, Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp are the top-three social media apps. Focusing on the positives, he said, “The way have accepted technology, it has provided us a platform and created several operative commercial models. The magic of social media allows us to do anything,” said Bhojwani.

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tadka We-Hub for women Leaders from Telangana appear different, as on March 8 this year, they launched a startup incubator to promote entrepreneurship exclusively among aspiring women from rural and urban backgrounds.

Titled ‘We-Hub’, it’s India’s first state-led incubator open to all kinds of innovations including a tech startup, socio-cultural startups or an idea completely different. Aiming financial independence for such entrepreneurs, We-Hub offers help through workshops, social innovation and co-incubation programmes to all women who dream big.

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 35

Sikkim is home to Mt. Khangchendzonga,

UNESCO WORLD MIXED HERITAGE SITE Khangchendzonga National Park

The first 100% Organic farming State in India

R.O. No. : 227/IPR/Pub/Dis/17-18

the third highest mountain peak in the world.

Pilgrimage Tourism

Adventure Tourism

No field of work belongs to any gender.

A bike doesn’t know if a man or a woman is riding it.

The concept of a maleor femaledominated profession is a myth.

If you love something and are passionate about it, do it.

You only live once, push yourself and make the best of it, don’t stop chasing your dreams

38 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

Interview

First Woman Firefighter The

of India

Harshini Kanhekar is India’s first woman firefighting officer, now Deputy Manager, ONGC. She broke into the male bastion, becoming India’s first ever Woman Firefighter. Here is an excerpt from an interview with her By Vandana Patnaik

Tell us about your journey from being a naive, small-town girl to being the first woman firefighter of the country. How does it feel and what does it mean to you?

Like a true patriotic Indian who starts with a “Jai Hind”, I belong to Nagpur and thank CII for having thought of asking me to come and share my journey on such a huge platform. SNDT Mumbai is a purely women’s, and the National Defence Academy at Khadakvasla a purely men’s institution. Then there are two exclusive firefighting colleges, one at London and the other in India at Nagpur since 1956. In 2002, I became the first woman ever to get admitted into a totally men’s domain, the firefighting college. It wasn’t like my dream to join the firefighting institute and become a fire officer. After my 10th standard I moved to Nagpur from Nasik where my father had got transferred. I went to LAD College for Women there.

During my B.Sc days I was a part of the Air wing of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) because I wanted to feel how the soldiers lived, to understand how they managed everything on their own, living in tents, cooking their own meals and maintaining the basic cleanliness of

their surroundings. When I joined NCC and saw men in their uniforms, wings on their chests and stripes on their shoulders. It inspired me to get into a uniformed service. That was my reason to subscribe to the Employment News, a daily which advertised for youngsters to join the armed forces. Meanwhile a friend of mine advised me to fill the form for the fire college. I applied just because there was a uniform to be worn in that college. My passion to wear a uniform made me fill the form. It wasn’t like I wanted to become a firefighter, but it was the lure of the uniform that pushed me towards my destiny. Simultaneously

I was going for SSB training classes which were being run by Capt. Chapekar in Nagpur. I used to mug up about the famous places in and around Nagpur—the biggest medical college in Asia or the largest food supplying unit, or even the only firefighters’ college in SE Asia. I had no inkling that some day I’d be a part of that very institution I was reading up about.

Great. So, how did you get into the college? Who was your inspiration apart from the uniform?

I was fortunate to be a part of a family where my

When I joined NCC and saw men in their uniforms, wings on their chests and stripes on their shoulders. It inspired me to get into a uniformed service. A friend of mine advised me to fill the form for the fire college. I applied just because there was a uniform to be worn in that college. My passion to wear a uniform made me fill the form April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 39

Interview father was very keen on girls getting educated.

During graduation I was applying for bank jobs.

My father’s instruction was to write the exam and get experience in facing the exam. This had given me a lot of practice.

When I filled the form for the fire college, as was the norm, my father took me to the college to show me the place and also got me the course content to study. I had also picked up a form for my friend to fill up and apply. On seeing the beautiful red brick building I was awestruck and prayed that I get admission there.

People inside the college thought we had mistakenly got into that building, that we had to go to the adjacent post office and had wandered there. We were asked to go there instead. On enquiring, they dissuaded me from leaving the form there, since it was a boys’ college.

I was advised to join the armed forces. That humiliation was what made me submit the form, as in the form nothing was mentioned about the gender of the applicant, since the criteria was only that you had to be a graduate.

That must have been quite an experience.

Oh yes, there’s more to it. When I went to finally submit the form with my friend, I remember the clerk at the office couldn’t stop laughing. He commented that women want a 33% reservation. To which I retorted that I believed in 50/50 opportunity. I am very thankful to that clerk for having been so impolite, had it not been for him I would not have pushed to prove him wrong.

After that it became my driving force or mission to get into that college any which way.

So, which exam did you write after that?

It was an all-India UPSC entrance exam which was, till 2003, a three-and-a-half-year course after graduation.

What did you do in the meantime after having applied to the firefighting college?

Since I didn’t want to sit idle, in the interim, I had taken admission in an MBA college even though I had no interest. It was just to please my parents.

It was shocking for me to know that I’d passed the entrance to a boys’ college (the firefighting college). My friend who had applied with me did not clear the exam which was a source of tension for me. Though my friends were not very supportive of my joining the college, I had made up my mind to go ahead with it.

What was the procedure like?

Before I joined I had to go through the medical and a personal interview. Since no other girl had ever been admitted to the college, there wasn’t any medical criteria there to judge me on. The 40 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

People inside the college thought we had mistakenly got into that building, they dissuaded me from leaving the form there, since it was a boy’s college. I was advised to join the armed forces. That humiliation was what made me submit the form, as in the form nothing was mentioned about the gender of the applicant

doctors in the interview asked me if I’d be able to cope with such a difficult training and course.

When I answered in the affirmative, they were all taken aback. Being a very skinny person, I did clear the medical interview. I fulfilled all the height, weight and eye test requirements.

Then came the personal interview. The whole college was abuzz with excitement that a girl was getting admission into their college. Men, screened and chosen from all over the country, were waiting for the lone girl to enter the college.

The entire college came to have a look at me when I reached the college. I enjoyed all the attention.

How was the interview? Were you scared?

Being an average student I was; it was a bit intimidating before the interview. They just asked me the chemical formula for chlorine which fortunately I knew. I was told that I’d ‘be the first Kiran Bedi of the fire college’. According to me, the interviewers were trying to dissuade me but I kept on with my rant of looking for a chance to prove myself. Even to fail, you need a chance.

After that you must have been on tenterhooks, waiting for the interview results?

Yes. Later that night when the list was put up my name Miss Harshini Kanhekar was boldly staring back at people. For the first time in the history of that college a MISS had made it to the list which was a very proud moment for not only me but the entire family. I got a call from the local newspaper Lokmat congratulating me on my achievement. My family didn’t realise that it was a very big deal for me to have made it to the college. I got a lot of media attention which felt very nice.

It was later that my family and I started finding about the course and the job opportunities it had to offer. After all the hullabaloo came the actual test. The first time I wore the khaki uniform and went to college, I stood in front of the same peon who had told me to go back and that the college was only for men. The same person stood and saluted me. The same person, next year, was guiding girls, telling them procedures of admission into the college. This indeed was a moment of great pride for me.

With all this over, now came the moment of truth. Before this, I was Harshini Kanhekar but the moment college started, I was THE WOMAN in a men’s college. THE WOMAN in a man’s world trying to make her mark and prove herself. I felt I was the representative for all womankind. So much so that I felt I couldn’t be late to college, lest it would taint women’s reputation as latecomers. Or, if I wasn’t able to lift up heavy equipment, it would again be blamed on my being a woman. So I had a lot at stake—standing up for all women. This was the reason that in the entire three-and-a-half-

year course I was never even once absent from college or punished for being late or pulled up for shamming just because I was a woman.

I consider myself fortunate that the ground staff at college never discriminated against me because of my gender. They never gave me any concessions just because I was the weaker sex.

were theory and one practical. In the last semester, one had to serve in two metros. I served in Kolkata and Delhi, respectively, for my last semester.

Great, Harshini. How was the course?

All the heavy lifting, like that of ladders and hose pipes were all part of our training, plus tools for our punishment. Dealing with heavy water hoses, suction hoses, and mock drills with dummies, the course was difficult for everybody, gender no bar. I did not want to fall weak. So I’d go early and practise all by myself in the storeroom. Then, I could walk with my head held high and nobody would mock me.

There were seven semesters to that course, six

National Fire Service College [NFSC] is located in Nagpur and was established in the year 1956. The institute functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, New Delhi. The college offers various certification courses, diploma and even advanced diploma courses in Fire training, which are recognised by the State and Central Government as well as the Public sector undertaking and the business community as well. In addition, the Diploma and Advanced Diploma of NFSC courses are also recognised by the Union Public Service Commission for appointment in the middle management cadre. The institute also offers a bachelor’s degree in fire training that aims at producing complete Fire and Safety Professionals with the requisite theoretical as well as practical knowledge base. The curriculum has been designed to cater to the ever-changing demands of Fire Technology, with the necessary inputs from the industry. The college aspires to produce individuals equipped to contribute for progress at all levels—individual, nation al and global. The young engineers trained by the institute are picked by reputed industries and major public sectors, considered to be the Navratnas of Government of India.The institution is an autonomous body and has the AICTE approval as well and is just 1.5 km away from the Nagpur railway station.

Industrial Exposure- In order to provide strong practical work foundation, the institute offers an entire semester-long practical training, in addition to the customary six semesters in the college for giving the students a sense of the practical world Excellent Placement Record- Almost 100% placement is done every year at National Fire Service College, through campus interviews Highly-trained Faculty- The faculty at the institute are highly skilled and are experts in Fire services. The library is well stocked with more than 10,000 books on various subjects.

As a firefighter, did you have to lift a lot of heavy stuff during the training? That must have been a challenging task physically.

When and how did you get your present job with ONGC?

After the completion of my training, in 2006, I got selected for ONGC. Over there also there was a lot of buzz that a woman fire officer was coming and they were deliberating as to which fire station I was to be assigned. I joined the Mehsana fire station in Gujarat, the second largest onshore production plant of the ONGC. It has more than 50 oil installations that fall under the purview of three fire stations. For the better part of my service, I have always been a station in-charge at either of the three fire stations. Mehsana is also a small village that doesn’t have a municipal fire station. So ONGC has taken up the responsibility of providing services to the village.

Your final thoughts and any message you want to give to the young girls of today?

No field of work belongs to any gender. A bike doesn’t know if a man or a woman is riding it.

The concept of a male-or female-dominated profession is a myth. If you love something and are passionate about it, do it. You only live once, push yourself and make the best of it, don’t stop chasing your dreams. nitts64@gmail.com

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tadka

Ford cars to cost four per cent more You may well be lusting after the Ford India cars, especially the newly-launched, much successful Ford Eco sport Faceflift. But after the Indian government’s decision to increase import duty on auto components, the company will raise prices of all its vehicles by up to 4 per cent each.

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 41

Travel

Gorgeous Swiss Riviera

An avid traveller and photographer, Devendra Parulekar, Founder, Chief Growth Hacker at SaffronStays is a management graduate with over 18 years’ experience in the information technology industry. An ex-partner and practice leader-cyber security, India at Ernst & Young, Devendra left his cushioned corporate job in 2016 to pursue the vision of transforming the hospitality and real estate market in India. His first rendezvous with SaffronStays was as the Chief Investor and Mentor.

In an interview with Corporate Citizen, he talks about his favourite tourist destination, Swiss Riviera!

By Sharmila Chand 42 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

Which is your favourite holiday destination? Why? The Swiss Riviera is my favourite holiday destination. During a family trip to Europe, the joy, privacy, and freedom of a homestay gave birth to the idea of a platform that offered the comfort of a home on a holiday. SaffronStays was then born with the motive of providing an indulging travel experience. Europe will always be close to my heart.

When did you visit last?

I visited the Swiss Riviera in 2013, and then again 2014.

What do you like about the place?

This small French-speaking province of Switzerland has a unique blend of both French and Swiss cultures. The amalgamation of Swiss chocolate and French wine was spectacular. The long walks by Lake Geneva are unforgettable, and even the railway line that runs next to the lake is one that ev-

eryone should go on. I have seen it in summer and autumn and this place is gorgeous all year-round.

What should not be missed, what do you recommend to see and do?

The Swiss Riviera is the perfect vacation destination for those who are looking for an idyllic getaway. The silent town sits on the bank of the expansive Lake Geneva. The few locals who you may meet are warm, friendly and very welcoming. It is very well connected to most cities, via the gorgeous train route. ● The towns of Montreux and Vevey are gorgeous, and must be visited. ● Vevey is in fact the small town where Charlie Chaplin died. His former country estate has been converted into Chaplin’s World and is a must-visit. ● We stayed right in the middle of the town plaza, in a youth hostel. The experience was unparalleled. The weekly flea market took place right in the centre of the square and the sleepy village turned into a bustling town for just one day. ● The Chillon Castle or the Chateau de Chillon, an island castle on Lake Geneva is one of Switzerland’s most visited castle and has inspired many poems. ● The Golden Rail meanders through the gorgeous vales and is an absolutely stunning ride. ● The various cafes around Lake Geneva cute and authentic. We’ve spent innumerable hours just sitting by the lake, soaking in the extraordinary views. ● The public transportation in Montreux is splendid. You will find all forms of transport in the city, and to other parts of the country too. ● Visit the Movenpick and Nestlé factories. Do not watch your weight, though!

Which restaurants you like to visit over there?

The little cafes by the Lake are mostly the only restaurants, other than those in hotels. They are authentic European cafes and we have some unforgettable memories there.

Which are the good hotels to stay there?

I have stayed in Youth Hostels and 5-star hotels (Fairmont Le Montreux Palace) and both the experiences are cherished.

Three tips you can give to fellow travellers for that place? ● Take the mountain rail at least once. ● Use public transport. It is very efficient, and well connected. ● Go on a boat ride on Lake Geneva.

According to you, how can that destination be improved?

There is nothing to improve in this area!

What can other destinations learn from that place? ● All tourist destinations must invest heavily in infrastructure, and make sure that products and services offered to guests are of global-standard.

The Swiss Riviera is the perfect vacation destination for those who are looking for an idyllic getaway.

The silent town sits on the bank of the expansive Lake Geneva ● India especially, must learn to market its gems better.

There are innumerable small towns in India that are capable of reaching the level of the Swiss Riviera if enough attention is paid. ● Citizens must learn how to imbibe the culture of their city and portray it best to tourists.

Any interesting episode of your holiday over there which you can share with our readers?

We were surprised to know that very few people even knew about the Swiss Riviera. While the citizens themselves number up to a small figure, we rarely bumped into other tourists on our trip. Even parks would be empty, yet always well-maintained.

What kind of a traveller are you—planning well or more impulsive?

I am a mixed traveller. I usually wait until the last minute, and then plan out everything.

Lastly, what tops your mind when you travel – sightseeing, food, shopping...?

I thoroughly enjoy photography and capture the destination in my frames. I also enjoy trying different cuisines on my travel trips. So no trip, whether in India or abroad, is complete without good photography and great food. chand.sharmila@gmail.com

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tadka Gold fails to shine

It may have been the Maharashtrian New Year and Holi in March, but gold failed to shine thanks to lower retail demand. In fact the pre-bookings for Gudi Padwa were just 30 per cent of the previous year as per reports. Physical gold demand remained low in other Asian countries as well, as investors remained cautious of an expected hike in US interest rates for the first time this year.

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 43

Campus Placement

Paint your life more She was not only a topper in academics but also outstanding in all activities at school and college.

Kumudni Manocha’s involvement across activities helped build her confidence, which in turn helped her bag a coveted placement. For she believes in painting her life with the colours of love and involvement...

By Joe Williams

S

he wanted to be a designer, to design the lives of people and paint them in different colours, but she joined an insurance company, in management. This is the story of Chandigarh girl Kumudni Manocha who wants to make the most of her career, who joined Tata AIG General Insurance Company Limited, a joint venture between the Tata Group and American International Group.

For Kumudni, this is just the beginning, as she heads into the competitive corporate world aiming to overcome all hurdles before she emerges as someone who can give back to the world all the good she has accumulated through years of education. Being a papa’s girl, she wanted to deliver to the world what her father believes about her.

“My father believed and I believe that the corporate world will be the right platform to take up 44 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

colourful

all the challenges and make the most of them,” says Kumudni.

Early life…

Kumudni did her schooling from the Rishi Galav Public School and later graduated in Commerce from the Prestige Institute of Management, Gwalior. A fun-loving girl and a naughty tomboy, she was fond of teasing friends, which nonetheless saw her friends’ circle multiply. At college she made the most of it, taking part in all events, no matter what it was—dancing, singing and debates, to name a few. A topper in mathematics, she was overall among the top-three in school.

She continued to carry the good work with books and emerged runner-up at graduation. One of her happiest moments was when she handed her father the silver trophy she got after three years in college, and it was not one teacher but quite a few who liked her. She was one of the favou-

Kumudni with her friends

Kumudni with teachers and friends during her college days

rite students of S. N. Dutta, Sanjay Gupta, and Nandan Velankar. “I was a bright student and was also very much involved in cultural activities (painting, calligraphy, dance, sports, coordination) in my schooldays, and I continued the same in college as well, which helped to build my self-confidence,” confides Kumudni.

Campus placement…

No, placement was not such a tough call, she says. She did her homework before the call, and things went smoothly. Perks were not what she was looking for. “This is my first job, perks do not matter. I just want to get on the field and face the realities of the corporate world. Once I get a strong footing, the rest will fall in place,” says the management trainee at TATA AIG. She had to go through the aptitude test, followed by the GD, followed by the personal interview, the last being the best. “My personal interview was totally based on my hobbies and resume and selling skills, which went on fine.” The strong belief that she could do it made her stronger, and all the fear of placement took a back seat. “There wasn’t any, all because I had belief in myself. Yes, I feel that it was one of the most sought-after placements. But my being a placement coordinator at my graduation college helped me in developing self-confidence, team work and leadership abilities.”

On the corporate world…

Now, she believes, it is time to make the career more interesting and learn more about what is out there and explore. “This is what every student has been taught—be it at school, at graduation or post-graduation—to march ahead in their new journey. Yes, corporate life will be challenging, and one should always be ready to deal with everything that comes across your way,” she confides.

To make her father happy was her singleminded goal. “That was more challenging than academics. I always use to ponder and wonder— if I do this will my father like it or not?

That was the test for me. All that our loved ones want us to top our class and walk out of our classrooms and venture into conference rooms and marketplaces making a name for ourselves and our family,” she explains.

Kumudni’s family

Credit for the success…

“Of course, my family, my father, Devendra Manocha,” who she credits for her success. Her father is the Dispatch Manager at Sterling Agro Industries at Gwalior. “He has been my mentor and guardian. There are others who played their role in shaping me into what I am today—my brother, Jignesh Manocha, who is pursuing his B.Com (H) from Amity University, Gwalior, my roommate Sabiha Sood, Shri Shivam and Anuj Sikarwar, to name a few. Last but not the least, my mother, Seema Manocha, who is a homemaker.

My happiest moment was when I handed over my first silver medal I got from my graduation college for being the second topper at college, to my father.” For Kumudni, life is about painting it with different colours. “It is all about making life very colourful and this comes with lots of love.”

Tricks to succeed...

• Don’t get nervous.

• Don’t panic.

• Believe in yourself.

• Give your best shot, don’t worry about the results.

“I was a bright student and was also very much involved in cultural activities in my school days, and I continued the same in college as well, which helped to build my self-confidence” • Learn to deal with negative people. They are the best motivation.

• Take a stand for yourself and your dreams. joe78662@gmail.com

CC

tadka

Indian companies seek a different organisational culture Around 31% of companies in India are considering a different organisational structure, a recent joint study by global advisory firm Willis Towers Watson and CII showed. The top five drivers for considering this change include creating a performance-driven culture (49%), meeting changing customer demands (41%), supporting change in strategy (36%), changing the behaviour and mindset of the workforce (34%) and cutting costs (30%)

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 45

Loved & Married too

By Kalyani Sardesai

It is not often these days that a college romance fructifies into a wedlock.

Corporate Citizen unlocks the story of love that has culminated into marriage, for we believe in the stability of a relationship and family unit. We bring to you real-life romances that got sealed in marriage

S

he's General Manager in Pune's Ravetkar Group, a real estate development firm. He runs his own financial consultancy 'One stop solution' for all queries related to real estate. She's a corporate, he an entrepreneur. The last few years have undoubtedly been challenging for Rupa and Ajinkya Dantale but rewarding as well. After all, they are both doing what they love, on their terms.

"It wasn't easy quitting a full-time job of 11 years with ICICI in their Housing and loans department, but deep down, I was pretty sure this is what I wanted to do. Luckily, my wife not only supported my quest for entrepreneurship and self-employment but also made it as easy as it could possibly be," he says.

On her part, she shrugs that it wasn't that difficult—"because there was no conflict in what we wanted to do."

At the heart of this mutual respect for each other is a marriage founded on years of friendship and understanding.

As individuals though, they couldn't be more different.

She's the social one, he on the other hand, takes his time opening up to people. She loves reading, music and plays.

Rupa and Ajinkya Dantale are deeply invested in each other's dreams. A simple but effective way to live, work and grow together—not only as individuals but also as a couple and parents to 13-year-old Ria

Supportively yours:

Love's like that The very notion is boring to him—he's more an outdoors person with a love of travel and trekking.

He's patient and mature, she's spontaneous and bubbly.

Obviously, a shared value system helps in cementing bonds on a deeper level.

Back to the beginning

This love story pre-dates even the college years and is therefore not the typical campus romance. The families lived next to each other in Pune's peth areas and both saw each other grow up. "In fact, we were regulars at each other's homes. My mother-in-law especially was very close to me, my parents and my other two sisters," recounts Rupa.

46 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

It was sometime during undergraduate college that love entered the picture. "The families knew each other well and there were no objections really, and after completing my graduation and taking up my first job, I married him," she says. This was in 2004.

A year later little Ria entered the picture. "Looking back, I can only marvel at how quickly our relationship transited from one level to the next. First we were boyfriend-girlfriend, then husband and wife, and in swift succession, parents. Yes, the pace was hectic and demanding, and sometimes I wish it had been more relaxed, but the situation required us to pull together as a team, understand each other and be equal to the multiple demands

"Looking back, I can only marvel at how quickly our relationship transited from one level to the next. First we were boyfriendgirlfriend, then husband and wife, and in swift succession, parents"—Rupa Bringing up baby

The mantras of a marriage

• Respecting each other's dreams • Understanding and patience • Trust • Not letting fights fester • Appreciation and respect for one's significant half of career, home and baby," she recollects. What's more, living as a nuclear family, albeit in the same building as his parents, helped them evolve as an independent unit despite the fact that they were both only 22 and 27 respectively.

Fourteen years later, they look back in quiet satisfaction at having made it from scratch on their own.

Rupa quit her job in the initial days to concentrate on baby, firm about the fact that one day she would return to work. "He has always encouraged me to follow my heart and helps out in ways big and small," she says.

As of today, when her work entails frequent travel and out of station stints, all he wants to know is that she is safe. "He is very patient with my erratic schedules and since his timings are more flexible, is a very hands on dad to our girl," she expresses Similarly, she makes it a point to extend her understanding to him when it comes to dealing with the vicissitudes that self-employment usually brings in its wake. "It's a competitive and demanding space, but he is good at what he does," she says.

Like every young family, their world is centered around Ria, but they have been particular to encourage her to be independent.

While Rupa is the stricter parent, Ria is deeply attached to her father who is more like a friend. "Picking her up and dropping her to school, taking her to classes and various treats are my forte. But her studies and diet are largely Rupa's focus," he says. "At the end of the day, all we want is for our girl is to learn and observe from our experiences and struggles and grow up to be a well-rounded human being. " Adds Rupa, "Yes, studies are indeed important but even more so are the skills required to deal with day-to-day issues and sort them out amicably."

Quality time as a family consists of treks and long weekends to the Konkan coast which they love from the bottom of their hearts. "There is something so deeply refreshing and rejuvenating about the Konkan and its assorted spots that we have to plan a visit every few months," says Ajinkya.

The building blocks of a marriage

"Honestly, I don't remember the last time we fought," says Ajinkya. It wasn't always this way, the duo went through their moments of intense strife like every couple. "Yeah, we have done the yelling and screaming at each other... been here... done that," grins Rupa. "But gradually maturity sets in. When you let the conflict overrule the peace of the house, both lose." Appreciating each other comes easy. "I really wonder at her hard work and ability to multitask," says Ajinkya. Even as Rupa says his patience and maturity are his finest qualities.

So, what according to her, makes a marriage tick ? "Understanding, patience and acceptance," says Rupa. Whereas Ajinkya's take is even simpler. "Trust each other, and it all works out in the end." kalyanisardesai@gmail.com

CC

tadka Trichy City Corporation declared ‘Open Defecation-Free' The Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) has declared city of Trichy as ‘Open Defecation-Free’ (ODF). In a survey that makes Trichy City Corporation perhaps the only one among the 12 city corporations to be declared ODF. As ODF is a one of the major parameters in the ‘clean survey’ (Swachh Sarvekshan) to rank the cleanest city in the country, Trichy now has an upper edge over many other cities in the country.

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 47

Survey

Indians are Extremely Unhappy in 2018

While economic indicators like GDP and per capita income helpul in identifying the well-being of the country’s citizens the holistic progress of a country. On that front, Indians are Report 2018 to understand why Indians are unhappy as Compiled by Neeraj Varty 48 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

are decent indiactors of a country’s health, no other statistic is as than the Happiness index. Happiness is the most telling sign of an unhappy lot. Corporate Citizen analyses the World happiness compared to other countries

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 49

Survey Happiness Rankings 1. Finland (7.632) 2. Norway (7.594) 3. Denmark (7.555) 4. Iceland (7.495) 5. Switzerland (7.487) 6. Netherlands (7.441) 7. Canada (7.328) 8. New Zealand (7.324) 9. Sweden (7.314) 10. Australia (7.272) 11. Israel (7.190) 12. Austria (7.139) 13. Costa Rica (7.072) 14. Ireland (6.977) 15. Germany (6.965) As can be seen from the figures, Nordic countries like Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland are the happiest countries in the world.

High employment and education, coupled with low crime has made these countries ideal to reside in.

 Explained by: GDP per capita  Explained by: social support  Explained by: healthy life expectancy  Explained by: generosity  Explained by: freedom to make life choices  Explained by: perceptions of corruption  Dystopia (1.92) + residual 95% confidence interval

117. Iraq (4.456) 118. Mali (4.447) 119. Namibia (4.441) 120. Cambodia (4.433) 121. Burkina Faso (4.424) 122. Egypt (4.419) 123. Mozambique (4.417) 124. Kenya (4.410) 125. Zambia (4.377) 126. Mauritania (4.356) 127. Ethiopia (4.350) 128. Georgia (4.340) 129. Armenia (4.321) 130. Myanmar (4.308) 131. Chad (4.301) 132. Congo (Kinshasa) (4.245) 133. India (4.190) 134. Niger (4.166) 135. Uganda (4.161) 136. Benin (4.141) 137. Sudan (4.139) 138. Ukraine (4.103) =

50 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

India is currently at 131st place in the world happiness rankings.

It ranks almost twice as low as Pakistan (75th place). Even wartorn countries like Iraq (117th) are currently happier than India.

Rising unemployment, inflation and increased work stress are some of the reasons Indians are unhappier than ever.

Changes in the Happiness rankings of countries over the years 105. Uganda (-0.297) 106. Sudan (-0.306) 107. United States (-0.315) 108. South Africa (-0.348) 109. Ireland (-0.363) 110. Tanzania (-0.366) 111. Mexico (-0.376) 112. Iraq (-0.399) 113. Egypt (-0.402) 114. Laos (-0.421) 115. Iran (-0.422) 116. Brazil (-0.424) 117. Jordan (-0.453) 118. Central African Republic (-0.485) 119. Italy (-0.489) 120. Bangladesh (-0.497) 121. Tunisia (-0.504) 122. Trinidad & Tobago (-0.505) 123. Greece (-0.581) 124. Kuwait (-0.609) 125. Zambia (-0.617) 126. Panama (-0.665) 127. Afghanistan (-0.688) 128. India (-0.698) 129. Liberia (-0.713) 130. Cyprus (-0.773)

India has dropped 11 places in the 2018 World Happiness Report. This is the second consecutive decline, after falling 4 places from 2016-2017. This trend is extremely worrying. As the population of India increases, (currently at 130 crore), the pressure on available resources increases, which leads to more people being deprived of resources essential for a comfortable living. Farmers, which form a large part of India’s agrarian economy, are at their unhappiest in decades, with low yield and even lower prices being fetched for their crops. All these factors along with rapid urbanisation and increased pollution in cities have made India a stressed-out country in 2018.

Immigration and Happiness 1. Finland (7.662) 2. Denmark (7.547) 3. Norway (7.435) 4. Iceland (7.427) 5. New Zealand (7.286) 6. Australia (7.249) 7. Canada (7.219) 8. Sweden (7.184) 9. Switzerland (7.177) 10. Mexico (7.031) In this section, the happiness of immigrants and the locally-born populations of their host countries is measured and compared by dividing the residents of each country into two groups: those born in another country (the foreign-born), and the rest of the population.

Once again, the Nordic countries, led by Finland, are the happiest for immigrants. They are followed by countries with liberal regimes like New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

Conclusion First, let’s state the obvious. Developed countries are happier than developing ones. The countries with the lowest populations are generally happier than overpopulated countries. High levels of employment lead to low levels of crime and more harmony in the community. Countries with liberal re-

gimes like Canada and New Zealand are happier with countries with protectionist regimes. Finally, close to home, India must find a way to address issues of unemployment and overpopulation, without which, Indians are staring at depression epidemic.

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 51

Health

Blending Fitness and Dance ‘Classically’ That dance movements bring in fitness is not new but, staying fit to endure the journey of ‘being’ a classical dancer, definitely is. Kolkata-based Ritwika Ghosh, a Bharatnatyam dancer, is a ‘chip’ off the acclaimed Chennaibased Rukmini Devi Arundale’s Kalakshetra Foundation. A staunch believer in the martial art form from Kerala–Kalaripayattu, she’s had her opportunities to run corporate workshops that help de-stress employees through dance therapy; also having performed at many corporate events. A recital performer since the age of 14, she migrated from Chennai and currently runs her own dance school in Kolkata, whilst shuttling between cities for workshops and performances. Ritwika shares her dance and fitness ‘mantra’ for all

By Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar

52 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

“If

fitness be the goal, then the aim is already within you. If we listen to what everyone has to say (for late beginners of dance), then we automatically get deprived...” said Ritwika Ghosh, Bharatnatyam dancer and Kalaripayattu artist. “One has to be a bit self-centred here and there is no age-bar on when to start learning to dance.”

A recipient of the ‘Yuva Kala Bharathi’ award from Bharat Kalachar, Chennai, Sanjukta Panigrahi Smriti Puraskar from Aurovinda Ashram, and the ‘Adwitiya’award from Anandabazar Shalimar, Kolkata; she was bestowed the title - ‘NruthyoJyothi’ and also the ‘Padmavati Pratibha Puraskar’ from Devdasi Nrutya Mandir Bhubaneshwar, Odisha; NrityaVilasini from Bhilai, Chattisgarh, ‘Singarmani’ from Sursingar Samsad, Mumbai et.al. She is an empanelled artist for Doordarshan and SPIC MACAY (Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture).

For dancers, stretching of the body is an important component and many a time, dancers too fail to practise other parallel exercise routine.

“With regular dance and its rigours, dancers are often subjected to bodily discomforts such as knee pain and other aches in the back and hip.

This is especially true for regular and lifelong practitioners of Bharatnatyam and could lead to muscle pulls and other injuries.”

“Some dancers therefore resort to fitness training during, before and after their dance practices or recitals. Personally, I chose Kalaripayattu, a martial art form that enables flexibility and leg strengthening, by keeping the muscles in elastic working conditions and imparts a sense of ‘balance’ during performances, which is very critical for a clean start and a smooth finish to any recital...” She owes her fitness training to Dr Kannan Pugazhenndi in Chennai, who imparted the benefits of stretch-based exercises.

“The ‘Aramandi’ (starting position) in Bharatnatyam demands the torso to be in that ‘state of bend’ for close to two hours at times; which could be injury prone and is considered an abnormal position to keep by most orthopaedics,” she said.

Pre and post-exercises following dance is the ideal way to stave off any form of injuries and this method is “true not just for those pursuing classical dance but also for all in our regular daily lives.

We all need a little bit of cardio, yoga, walks and stretching and we can all strive to be fit. I strongly advocate the time-tested yoga positions as part of ‘Suryanamaskar’; even if you do the 12 postures; a minimum of 6 repeats once each on the left and then the right, it not only covers the entire gamut of cardio and stretching exercises but enables blood purification too...”

“Regular dance practice for half hour daily or Suryanamaskar combined with meditation can help bring in focus to relieve stress, especially for women to relax and help nurture internal happiness.”

‘Corporate’ dancers Mamitha Prasad Schneider Electric

Dance, a therapy

Dance as a therapy is gaining ground in companies but, very slowly and is more prevalent across Mumbai, Chennai or Bengaluru. “... I have been a part of lecture demonstrations run as 1-2 day workshops in the IT sector...” she said. The focus here is to provide an alternate exercise routine to employees who either do not have time or the inclination for any forms of workouts.

“The expectations here are not to bring out ace classical performers but to provide an outlet through dance and music for employees who are too tired to hit the gym... In the past 10 years, there has been about 20-30% uptake in corporate music or dance-based workshops...”

“Everyone is not a dancer, I often incorporate movements which are possible by almost all. In Bharatnatyam, there are about 75-odd dance steps and I introduce a few basic 10-15 steps over a 1-1.5 hours per day workshop lasting a day or two. I help beginners to acquaint with and then choreograph an impromptu dance composition to help the learner achieve something besides a ‘feel good factor’ to relieve stress,” she said.

“These packages are run for an hour with intermittent gaps keeping in mind the non-dancers. But, if companies were to increase the frequency of such workshops then the whole idea reaches a second level where these dancers would be more familiar and experienced to try more moves...”

“For those in the 45-50 age group, the Western or contemporary style other than hip-hop might be a bit easier than the classical format.

However, if you have the need to aspire and perform – regular practice and dedication is sure to pave the way and who knows the person would turn out to be a good performer too...”

“If not a performer, be a teacher or choreographer, the avenues are aplenty!” Ritwika signs off. sangeetagd2010@gmail.com

Ritwika’s efforts have offered her disciple Mamitha Prasad, Marketing Manager at Schneider Electric, Kolkata to follow her passion in dance. Mamitha has been dabbling in dance since she was 22 but finally re-started her passion more ardently at 30 years in 2016 in Bengaluru. Mamitha, having moved cities finally found her Guru Ritwika last year.

“With a new job, new place, marriage and kids, passions can slip off your hands, so when you have time even if you are 30 or 50 years, the idea is to start. It is not about the profession but I dance for myself... I know that I am not fit enough for dancing but, this is something which you can train your body to do to an extent. I don’t aspire to be a professional dancer. All I care for is that my body should be able to accommodate....”

Kasturika Dasgupta IBM India Pvt. Ltd.

Kasturika Dasgupta, Manager, IT Software Testing at IBM India Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata; is also a trained Kathak dancer. She began dancing at the tender age of 2.5 and currently also represents her company in organising shows, designing, choreographing and performing too. While considering dance as a stress reliever she said, “Personally it is a flow of emotions for me, a way out from depression or other mood swings; it defines my identity while offering breathing space and enjoyment. Sometimes coming from office I would like to dance which offers a good balance between my mental and emotional health while making me physically fitter...”

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 53

Pearls of Wisdom

By Dada J P Vaswani

How to conquer

Fear

When we control our thoughts, we still the mind—and it becomes capable of beautiful, elevating reflections—reflections of the Divine Light within us “The mind is its own place,” wrote Milton, “and in itself, can create a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” How true! The mind can create strife and conflict; it can also create peace. If we are to live a life of peace and freedom from fear, we must discover peace within ourselves. We must be fearless in the mind within.

It is no easy task to still the mind. A mind that is wandering and restless is like a disturbed lake; waves are constantly rising on its surface, and it cannot reflect the stillness of the sky.

When we control our thoughts, we still the mind—and it becomes capable of beautiful, elevating reflections—reflections of the Divine

“Is it necessary for me to become a stone? Shouldn’t I feel for people?

Shouldn’t I be conscious of my responsibilities to others?”

54 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

Light within us.

Many people often ask me why it is necessary to control the mind. “What’s the use of going blank?” they want to know. “Is it necessary for me to become a stone? Shouldn’t I feel for people? Shouldn’t I be conscious of my responsibilities to others?”

Certainly, you must feel for others, and feel for yourself. It is not recommended that you stop thinking or feeling, when you learn to control the mind. When you have conquered the mind, when you have achieved inner tranquillity, you will begin to create new, beautiful positive thoughts and feelings. Once this is achieved,

even if negative thoughts arise in the mind, they cannot affect your inner calm and peace. This is why spiritually-awakened men do not suffer from fear, worry, anxiety or restlessness.

The three qualities at play in nature, are also at play in the mind. Thus, Tamas is total lethargy and inaction. Rajas is the opposite extreme —too much activity and restlessness. Sattva, the desirable state, is tranquillity—when both sides are well-balanced. When we achieve this state of focused activity and complete mental relaxation, we achieve tranquillity of mind.

Selfish thoughts are at the root of forces that disturb the mind. Selfish thoughts pave the way for stress, worry, anxiety, disappointment and fear. These thoughts need not be suppressed— they should be replaced with positive, selfless ones.

This will teach you what to do about your fears and phobias. There are two options open to you. One is to submit to your fears, allow yourself to be overwhelmed by them, making your life miserable in the process. I’m afraid very many people adapt this course. They live with their fear all their lives, suffering needless misery and anxiety. What a great pity is this!

The other option—the wiser alternative—is to conquer your fears, with God’s help. When you do this, you achieve a remarkable victory that can change your life. This victory is not the prerogative of the holy, the mighty and the brave. All of us have the potential to achieve it.

Expert Opinion Sunita Narain

Director General of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and the Editor of Down To Earth magazine. She is an environmentalist who pushes for changes in policies, practices and mindset

The e-vehicle paradox

In spite of the change technology promises, the change on ground is so miniscule that the reality of dirty energy and dirty vehicles swamps the little benefits

D

o you feel, like me, that an “Ah Hah” moment is just there, but we keep missing it? Just consider how e-vehicles are now the talk of the town; how industry has technology to make fuel out of solid waste or even second-generation ethanol from bamboo and rice straw-run vehicles without pollution and change the way we do business with pollution.

The technology in reach now promises to convert municipal waste and sewage into fuel. In one stroke, we de-carbonise vehicles, deal with garbage and achieve the best emission standards—better than the BS VI emission standards. The opportunity of these technologies looks immense. Exciting.

But the change on ground is so miniscule that the reality of dirty energy and dirty vehicles swamps the little benefits. Why are we not able to see the transition at the scale and pace needed?

Why are we not profiting from the opportunity of a re-invented future? This is when the politician-policy narrative has dramatically changed and there is optimism and drive to push newgeneration technologies. No longer is the issue

prioritised funding of public transport buses in cities with a high air pollution load.

Under FAME, initially, there was a discussion to give some 100 buses each to five high-impact cities. But now, it is down to 40 buses for nine cities and Jammu and Guwahati will get 15 buses as they are in the special category. The government subsidy is capped at `85 lakh to `1 crore per bus, depending on the level of localisation—5 to 35 per cent of the buses would have to be made/assembled in India. In addition, each of these 11 cities will have to spend up to `5 crore for setting up the infrastructure for charging.

The other scheme for scale-up of e-vehicles is under the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), which has tendered for some 10,000 vehicles and awarded this to Tata and Mahindra (70:30 ratio). It has received the first lot of 500 cars, specifically for Delhi and the National Capital Region. It is also setting up 125 charging stations in government offices, where these vehicles will be parked.

The question is what is all this adding up to?

India registers over 17 million two-wheelers and over 2.5 million cars each year. The 100 e-buses will get totally lost in the overcrowded, already congested and polluted cities. This strategy of incremental change is not the way to make a transition work.

Let’s then look at what has worked. Countries that have pushed this disruptive technology have set clear and enforceable targets. China’s zero emission vehicle mandate requires every vehicle manufacturer and importer to ensure that 10-12 per cent sales are e-vehicles by 2019-20. This should not surprise us. The fact is that when Delhi went through its own gas transition, it was done under a specific mandate. The Supreme Court laid down that all buses and three-wheelers would be run on CNG and that diesel buses would be penalised for each operational day. In just two years, the city brought in 100,000 vehicles. But today, we don’t want to discuss any tough mandate as it steps on too many toes.

Then there is the tricky issue of spending lots of money, which makes scaling up possible.

There is no doubt that the Government of India should not subsidise private vehicles. Instead, here the approach should be to work with the fiscal structures to incentivise cleaner vehicles.

The approach also should be to do what EESL is doing—bulk contracts to drive down price and make vehicles available to select target groups.

(This column was first published in the 16-28 February issue of Down To Earth. For full version of this article, go to this link: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/the-e-vehicle-paradox-59693)

Take e-vehicles.

So much buzz; but in reality, we do not have a clear policy for what we will promote and how

of air pollution, for instance, out of the table. But still, no disruption. Not yet.

Take e-vehicles. So much buzz; but in reality, we do not even have a clear policy for what we will promote and how. The Union Cabinet has recently cleared the National Mission on e-vehicles, but as yet there is a huge confusion about the direction of the technology roadmap—e-vehicles or hybrid or both. Battery-operated electric vehicles run entirely on electricity, while hybrid vehicles (mild, full or plug-in) combine the use of the internal combustion engine with battery. The NITI Aayog has been tasked to come up with this policy.

But the most important question is how will the transition be supported? The only supportive programme is the government’s Scheme for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME), with an outlay of ` 795 crore, of which as of December 2017 some `400 crore was available. The scheme has now, rightly,

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 55

Big

Hollywood biz

The Winners from

Oscars 2018 The Academy Awards is the biggest event in world cinema, and each year, the best movies from around the globe are bestowed with the highest honor in cinema—the coveted Oscar. Without further ado, Corporate Citizen brings you the winners from 90th Academy Awards By Neeraj Varty

Best Picture

The Shape of Water The winner of Best Picture is an unconventional love story which follows a mute custodian at a high-security government laboratory who falls in love with a captured human-like amphibian creature. Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water is a period science fiction film, which is a throwback to previous Oscar winners like ET, which walk the tightrope between appealing to sci-fi fans and as well as mainstream fans. The interesting part is that the film boasts of no major stars. It’s the story that is the king here.

Actor in a Leading Role

Gary Oldman

Movie:Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour is a war drama, and is an account of his early days as England’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Churchill is one of the most enigmatic historic personalities in the world, and it was always going to be a challenge to portray him. Gary Oldman, however, does a fantastic job, and makes the character his own. Despite being hailed as one of the greatest actors of his generation, he had never won an Oscar till this year. In a lot of ways, he is one of the most deserving people, along with Leonardo DiCaprio, who had been denied this great honor for far too long.

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Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour

Best Director

Guillermo del Toro

Movie: The Shape of Water

A still from The Shape Of Water

Guillermo Del Toro has been a critic’s favourite for a long time now. The Mexican director has always been acclaimed for his dark fantasy-themed movies like The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth, but an Oscar had always eluded him till now. In a lot of ways, this award seems to be a culmination in spirit for a lot of his earlier films. The Shape of Water is a difficult film to direct as emoting with a CGI creature can be hard for the audience to relate. Del Toro does an excellent job however, and expectations will be sky high from him going forward.

Actress in a Leading Role

Frances McDormand,

Movie: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Frances McDormand in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a drama film starring Frances McDormand as a mother who rents three billboards to call attention to her daughter's unsolved murder. Her performance as the heartbroken mother who will stop at nothing to ensure justice for her daughter will move you to tears. There are movies which rest on spectacle and those which rest purely on performance. Three Billboards is such a movie which rests squarely on the impressive shoulders of McDormand and she carries the weight with ease. She has been nominated for five Oscars so far, and this win makes it the second Oscar for her, after winning Best Actress for Fargo in 1996. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 57

Mobile apps

The Best Dictation Apps Typing for long stretches of time can be painfully laborious. For those who employ a secretary, dictating is an effective but costly and resource-consuming option. That’s where dictation apps come in. Using these apps, you can dictate for hours on end while the software transcribes the audio and compresses it so that you can store, send or even post your thoughts on social media By Neeraj Varty

Dragon Dictation

SpeechTexter

Active Voice HD

DropVox

Available on both iOS and Android platforms, Dragon’s service uses its ‘NaturallySpeaking’ software to turn speech into text at a rate that’s up to five times faster than regular typing. Those who like to think out loud, this may very well be the ideal app for you: write emails, send tweets and post Facebook statuses all by simply speaking into your smartphone. Supporting a range of languages and equipped with an editing feature for you to tidy up those slurs in your speech, it’s definitely one of the best dictation apps around.

A leading third-party dictation application on the Play Store, this app is packed full with features to help you dictate away. Turning your phone or tablet into a highly-functional dictation tool, SpeechTexter allows you to record any kind of audio and then share it via email, Google Drive or Dropbox. It has a high degree of recognition for English, and has 95 per cent accuracy. The best part is that it supports more than 60 languages, including Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Marathi, so you can dictate in regional languages if you want to.

Another dictation-totranscription app, Active Voice HD provides a service to send emails and messages once you’ve recorded them, as well as boom out your thoughts on various social media channels.

With support for 32 languages and an edit function to tidy up your flowing thoughts, the app even manages to differentiate between different English accents—a very important distinction that anyone in India who has tried to use dictation apps only to have their accent misinterpreted will tell you.

The USP of DropVox is its ability to automatically sync with your Dropbox account once you’ve made your voice memo. Working on iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches, it takes away the need to organise audio files and choosing where to send them, and instead sends them straight to your mass online storage account for you to sort at your convenience.

58 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

neeraj.varty07@gmail.com

Claps & Slaps Corporate Citizen Claps for the Kolkata Metro Rail authority and the Indian railways that have lately initiated a spree of “all-women”–manned railway stations across the country Marking Women’s day on March 8, the Kolkata Metro Rail authority handed over its Netaji Bhavan station to an all-women crew. The station is entirely operated by women employees of the Kolkata Metro. All positions of station superintendent, shift in-charge, booking clerks, security personnel, station porter, point operator, commercial porter, sweepers and other cleaning staffers are women.

Entirely managed by women, the Netaji Bhavan Metro station lends a touch of history too as this was the nation’s very first underground metro that started its maiden run on October 24, 1984. While it was Mumbai’s Matunga station (Central Railway) that set the precedent of becoming India’s first railway station to be run entirely by an all-women’s team, it has now made an entry into the coveted Limca Book of Records, 2018. On the heels are two stations on the Western Rail link— Ahmadabad’s Maninagar railway station and Mumbai’s Matunga Road station. In a step ahead, the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Shatabdi Express will now have an all-woman ticket checking crew on board as against women TTEs who are usually deployed on platforms.

Taking a cue for women empowerment, the South Central Railway too has taken the initiative to make Chandragiri railway station in Guntakal Division, an ‘All-Women Station’ alongside Begumpet railway station on Secunderabad Division, one of the busiest suburban stations in Hyderabad City and Phirangipuram railway station on Guntur Division that unveiled its ‘all-women squad this 8th March. Phulwari Sharif railway station (Patna district) too observed International Women’s Day entrusting women to manage operations at the station. With Jaipur’s Gandhinagar Railway station gaining much accolades as the first-ever all-women railway station in the country recently; it has had its own shares of blunt realities. Staffer Mahima Dutt Sharma at Gandhinagar junction has had to face gawky looks from men who are forced to interact with women outside their own comfort zones. “Even though all the information is displayed on boards, they keep coming again and again with silly queries,” she said (AFP). Hope conservative India has the courage to break gender discrimination, build a safe environment for its women employees and passengers and help chug the trains of ‘all-women squads’ at India’s railway stations!

60 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

Corporate Citizen slaps the dramatic decline in women’s labour force participation rates The latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS), 2015-16 shows that the proportion of working women has witnessed a sharp decline compared to a decade ago. In the last 2005-06 survey, 43% of married women in the age group of 15-49 years had reported working in the past 12 months which has now gone down by 31% in the latest survey. A total of 98% of married men in the same age bracket reported having worked in the last 12 months.

The data reveals complex factors pointing to social mores, rising incomes of men, and the continuous gender-based segregation in the job market that seems to have stymied women’s economic empowerment in India. The latest evidence on regressive attitudes towards women comes from the ‘Social Attitudes Research India’ survey covering Delhi, Mumbai, UP and Rajasthan in 2016. A new study based on the survey shows that “a significant share of men and women feel that married women whose husbands earn a good living should not work outside the home.” Despite an increase in the last 10 years, the proportion of married women earning more than their husbands now remains low at 19%, as per NFHS data. Another new study by Esha Chatterjee of the University of Maryland and coauthors shows that ‘highly educated women are more likely to marry more educated men with high incomes, and hence remain out of the labour force’.

Chaterjee’s study points that maybe the slow growth of salaried jobs in the country, and “sexbased occupational segregation” within those jobs may have contributed to the low proportion of working women in the country. Another index of women’s empowerment computed by Mint based on a state’s relative position in employment among married women, status of their cash earnings, authority in household decisions, and freedom from spousal violence shows that several north-eastern states and southern states fared much better on the index of women’s empowerment as compared to northern states such as UP, Bihar, Haryana, and Rajasthan. In general, there seems to be a positive relation between female literacy and female empowerment; however, data from National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) shows that of all the new jobs created in computer-related activities between 2004-05 and 2011-12, only 18% accrued to women. So, what prevents women from ‘calling it quits’? Do we look inwards or seek yet other research data?

(Compiled by Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar)

My First Boss

“He was a treasure trove of knowledge” My first boss taught me

the basics of sourcing, head hunting, screening and so on

By Ayesha Barse, Vice President, HR, Kenilworth Hotels, Goa

A

jay Nagotkar (AJ) - What can I say— to adequately express my gratitude towards the one who pushed me into the rewarding world of recruitment and human resources?

When I first met him he was the only one in the office. On inquiring where the others were, he said he had fired them all! I was taken aback but after hearing about the profile I decided to give it a shot. This was way back in 2003, and I was a recruiter for First Call BPO with a vision that the client should make the first call to us for any and every requirement to us.

When I was first interviewed, I was treated like a VIP as I was a sure-shot selection for any call centre with my communication skills. But I was not keen to work in shifts. So I refused to appear for any further interviews.

About a week later I got a call asking if I would like to apply for a recruiter’s position and I decided to give it a shot. And that’s how I met AJ. Despite his toughness as far as work went he was a treasure trove of knowledge who taught me the basics of sourcing, head hunting, screening and so on.

Hats off to him for printing brochures, distributing them on the roads, answering calls and queries, welcoming candidates, screening, briefing, grooming, training and even booking a sumo to put them in the vehicle and sending them to big companies. Our success was in ensuring the candidates joined and stayed for six months and we would get paid accordingly.

Upon hearing about my salary of `10,000/- provided I place 20 candidates each month I was super-excited. I think I placed about 43 in the first month. Within two months I was made head of operations.

When I was first interviewed, I was treated like a VIP as I was a sure-shot selection for any call centre, with my communication skills. But I was not keen to work in shifts

her boss, Ayesha with kar (AJ) Ajay Nagot

Gradually we moved to bigger offices, hired more team members and the company was a super success. We handled mass recruitment for giants such as WNS, Mphasis, IBM, Ventura (now Capita), Wipro, Reliance, 3 Global Services, etc.

I loved my job; the fact that I could counsel, guide, groom people into cracking interviews and the reward was when they would get the offer. I think we were the first consultancy to break the barrier and invite clients to our office to conduct interviews. At times they would even roll out the offer letters in our premises.

After this there was no looking back and I decided to stick to Recruitment and HR. And I have only one person to thank for my HR career—Ajay Nagotkar.

(As told to Kalyani Sardesai)

CC

tadka

India lacks in nurturing women entrepreneurship As per the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE) 2018, India ranked 52/57 countries on women entrepreneurs’ ability to capitalise on opportunities offered by their local environments and follows developed nations like the US (4th) and China (29th) but is ahead of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt and Bangladesh.

These 57 economies account for nearly 79% of the world’s female labour force.

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 61

Dr(Col.) (Col) A. A Balasubramanian Dr Balasubramanian

From From The The Mobile Mobile

Fight the right battles I once asked a very successful woman to share her secret with me.

She smiled and said to me, “I started succeeding when I started leaving small fights for small fighters. I stopped fighting those who gossiped about me... I stopped fighting with my in laws...

I stopped fighting for attention... I stopped fighting to meet public expectations of me... I stopped fighting for my rights with stupid people.

I left such fights for those who have nothing else to fight.

And I started fighting for My vision, My dreams, My ideas and My destiny.

The day I gave up on small fights is the day I started becoming successful.”

62 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

The Tomato Story...

A jobless man applied for the job of ‘Sweeper’ at Microsoft. The HR interviewed him. Then watched him cleaning the floor as a test. “You are appointed,” he said. “Give me your email address and I’ll send you the forms to fill in”. The man replied, “But I don’t have a computer, neither an email.”

“I’m sorry”, said the HR manager.“If you don’t have an email, that means you do not exist. And who doesn’t exist, cannot have the job.” The man left with no hope at all.

He didn't know what to do, with only $10 in his pocket. He then decided to go to the supermarket and bought a 10 kg tomato crate. He then sold the tomatoes in a door-to-door round. In less than two hours, he succeeded doubling his capital. He repeated the operation three times, and returned home with $60. The man realised that he can survive this way, and started to go everyday earlier and return late. Thus, his money doubled or tripled every day. Shortly, he bought a cart, then a truck, and then he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles. Five years later, the man is one of the biggest food retailers in the US. He started to plan his family’s future, and decided to have a life insurance. He called an insurance broker, and chose a protection plan. When the conversation was concluded, the broker asked him his email. The man replied, “I don’t have an email.” The broker answered curiously, “You don't have an email, and yet have succeeded to build an empire. Can you imagine what you could have been if you had an email?”

The man thought for a while and replied, “Yes, I’d be a sweeper at Microsoft!”

Moral of the story: 1) Internet/email/BBM/WhatsApp is not the solution to your life.

2) If you don’t have Facebook, internet/e-mail/BBM/WhatsApp, and if you work hard, you can be a millionaire.

How long does it take to decompose?

Glass Bottle 1 million years Plastic Bag 10-20 years Cigarette Butt 1-5 years Plastic Bottle 450 years

A wise judge’s sentence A farmer in ancient China had a neighbour who was a hunter, and who owned ferocious and poorly-trained hunting dogs. They jumped over the fence frequently and chased the farmer’s lambs.

The farmer asked his neighbour to keep his dogs in check, but this fell on deaf ears.

One day the dogs again jumped the fence, attacked and severely injured several of the lambs.

The farmer had had enough, and went to town to consult a judge who listened carefully to the story and said, “I could punish the hunter and instruct him to keep his dogs chained or lock them up. But you would lose a friend and gain an enemy. Which would you rather have, friend or foe for a neighbour?”

The farmer replied that he preferred a friend. “Alright, I will offer you a solution that keeps your lambs safe, and which will keep your neighbour as a friend.” Having heard the judge’s solution, the farmer agreed.

Once at home, the farmer immediately put the judge’s suggestions to the test.

He took three of his best lambs and presented them to his neighbour’s three small sons, who were filled with joy and began to play with them.

To protect his son’s newly acquired playthings, the hunter built a strong kennel for his dogs. Since then, the dogs never again bothered the farmer’s lambs.

Out of gratitude for the farmer’s generosity toward his sons, the hunter often shared the game he had hunted with the farmer. The farmer reciprocated by sending the hunter the cheese he had made.

Within a short time, the neighbours became good friends.

A saying in old China went something like this, “One can win over and influence people the best with gestures of kindness and compassion.”

A similar Western saying: ‘One catches more flies with honey than with vinegar.’

Let us make an effort to make a pact that we will be polite when we speak and not make rude and sarcastic remarks at every opportunity we get, especially with our families, friends and colleagues.

Aluminium Can 80-200 years Waxed Milk Carton 3 Months Apple Core 2 months Foam Plastic Cup 50 years Tin Cans 50 years Newspaper 6 weeks Banana Peel 2-5 weeks Plastic Film Container 20-30 years

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 63

astroturf experiencing troubles with your health lately, you will discover that some temporary relief is coming your way. However, this does not mean that you can indulge in mindless eating habits this month.

Aries

March 21 - April 20

This month brings a lot of fortunate blessings for you. You would have good health if you are able to follow a regular routine comprising of proper diet and physical activity. If there is any sort of health complication, don’t neglect but try to treat it at the earliest.

People belonging to the field of fine arts need to work hard. There are chances that you might end up having difficulties with your elders and bosses. other.

TAURUS

April 21 - May 20

This month of April doesn’t offer solid promises in regard to your health. Make sure you do not fall ill. In addition, focus on a disciplined life of eating habits to have a good health. Try to go for morning walks, practise meditation or yoga to keep your health on track. Be careful with your investments this month, as things will remain unstable.

GEMINI

May 21 - June 21

The month of April for all Geminis would prove excellent.

The primary benefit would come related to your health. Some Geminis might experience some complaints such as rheumatism.

There needs to be a systematic routine that needs to be followed by working professionals in order to seek rewards. Money spent this month would be moderate, without any significant stress on your pocket.

CANCER

June 22 - July 23

For all the Cancerians, the month of April is likely to prove fortunate in several aspects. On the other hand, there might be clouds of difficulties that together make it a mixed month. Most importantly,

(www.dollymanghat.com)

Fortune favours the bold and the lucky

Your attitude is your altitude, says Dolly Manghat, our renowned Astrological expert and believes she helps people create their own prophecies rather than live predictions try not to travel alone or long distances; this is because a violent accident might occur. Further, focusing on your health, do treat your conditions without delay. Nonetheless, you will have considerably good health during this month.

LEO

July 24 - Aug 23

For the Leo natives, April 2018 can be tagged as an average month. Focusing on the health aspect, there is nothing significant to expect.

People suffering from chronic ailments might face decreasing health conditions. In addition, there will be several irregularities concerned to your health as a result of unfavorable position of stars. Leo natives are advised to stay careful with their food habits as well as lifestyle trends to avoid discomforts.

VIRGO

Aug 24 - Sept 23

There is a favorable merger of stars this month which would assure good health. If you are experiencing any kind of chronic health ailments you would be able to find a good relief. Overexertion is your enemy this April; try not to bring work at home. Create a proper work schedule and act accordingly to maintain a balance. Your relationships would be steady.

64 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

LIBRA

Sept 24 - Oct 22

April is a time when you should spend time introspecting about your career. This is also a time when you should be strictly wary of your health. In general, you should lead a balanced life, which will help you come out of the troubled times that are headed your way. Avoid losing your patience as there is a way out even during the most dark times.

SCORPIO

Oct 23 - Nov 22

The month of April promises to be rewarding for you in more than one way. You are all set to move ahead with a strong mind and a healthy heart to accomplish your planned objectives.

What you must take care of this month is not to overlook even a slight health issue. You must also take care of your eating habits to ensure that you do not play with your health at any cost.

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 22

This month, the stars turn very favourable towards you. Overall, you will experience a very fulfilling and joyous April this year in every aspect. If you have been

CAPRICORN

Dec 23 - Jan 20

The sun moves positively for your sun sign and shows signs that your health will be at its best. From within, you may start to begin feeling the energy that lends a strong zest of strength within you. Some people who have been suffering from a long time illness may discover that they can overcome it this month.

Although nothing major is due to happen for you this month, you will still have a good one.

AQUARIUS

Jan 21 - Feb19

This month, you will face some positive results your life. You will be pumping with energy to face challenges. You will also find new opportunities making their way towards you. You will also find that you can utilise your talents and skills to bring out the best in you.

You will also find yourself high on the romantic front this month.

PISCES

Feb 20 - Mar 20

A very warm and rewarding time is on the cards for all people of this sun sign. As the sun moves over your house, it promises to maintain your health and keep you away from any negativity. If at all you fall prey to many health ailments, make sure that you do not lose your hope and fight with your willpower to overcome the condition.

Address: 143, St Patrick’s Town, Gate# 3, Hadapsar IE, Pune-411 013.

Tel.: 020-26872677 / 020-32905748 Email: connect@dollymanghat.com/ info.dollymanghat@gmail.com

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CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP

PROF. SUDHIR K SOPORY, VICE CHANCELLOR, JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY (JNU) Volume 1, Issue No. 21 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in

January 1-15, 2016 / `50

CORPORATE CULTURE

Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank on women in leadership and gender diversity

INTERVIEW

An in-depth interview with Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director India with Kingston Technology and Rajeev Bhadauria, Director, Group HR, at Jindal Steel & Power

Dynamic Duo 21 MEERA SHANKAR AND AJAY SHANKAR

UNFLINCHING SUPPORT

April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 65

the last word

Ganesh Natarajan

Scaling social ventures in India As the need for well-meaning social interventions expands in our fast-growing country with an even faster-growing digital divide emerging between the have and the have-nots, Social Venture Partners (SVP) itself is in the process of scaling from a set of local interventions to a truly national organisation

I

n India, one of the most admired and often the least understood segments of society are the social enterprises or NGOs. The passion of those who set up NGOs or for-profit social enterprises is often the object of “how could she do that” comments but their place in civil society and the enormous value a well-run social enterprise can add to the cause of inclusive growth by supporting underprivileged sections of society is well recognised.

However, when it comes to the management of social enterprises, most except some of the exceptional ones like ‘Pratham’, ‘Teach for India’ and ‘Pune City Connect’ are seen as less than optimal. But because of the causes they espouse, the lack of processes and systems and a weak strategy and governance are seen as minor flaws that need to be papered over even when large national, global or CSR Foundations evaluate them for potential funding. Seeking to make an exception to this differential yardstick is the approach of Social Venture Partners (SVP) India, a social entity that has grown from humble beginnings in 2012 to become one of the fast-growing professional social outfits in the country.

SVP India was inspired by the well-established Social Venture Partners movement in US which started in Seattle and grew over

Happy SVP partnerships: Ganesh Natarajan with colleagues

emerging between the have and the have-nots, SVP itself is in the process of scaling from a set of local interventions to a truly national organisation. The launch of the Million Jobs Mission, now supported

by Tata Trust has seen the identification of 15 entities each with the capacity to take a successful local model and expand to national scale and make a huge impact. From Vrutti which brings professional expertise to marginal farmers in Karnataka to Virohan, which has a successful model of paramedics skilling in UP, from Youth For Jobs enabling otherwise-abled youth to take their place in the workforce in Hyderabad to NES Khushi in

two decades to multiple locations in the USA and new beginnings in China and Japan. The partner model helped well-meaning individuals in a city to form a chapter which adapted venture capital principles to identify, fund, support and scale social enterprises in the city. SVP International has grown to over 3,000 chapters and has been widely recognised as a model that can make sustainable social change happen! In the It is time well-meaning year 2012, Ravi Vencitizens in every city and the katesan who had been Chairman of Microsoft entire country came togethIndia brought the coner to architect a new change cept to India and with model and work together for the first chapter starting the cause of a billion people in Bengaluru, the Indian version evolved from the US model of several loosely Pune, the scope of the Sustainable coupled chapters to a well-knit netLivelihoods drive in SVP India has work of chapters in Pune, Mumbai, created a structure of engagement Delhi, Hyderabad and of course between scalable social enterprises Bengaluru. Touching 300 partners, —a national network of partners over twenty NGOs funded menand a support consortium—that tored and scaled and some like Jais highly replicable in any modgruti in Pune which trains nursing el of high-touch engagement for assistants transformed to a scale of social good. With the number of nearly twenty times with profesimpacted lives expected to cross sional process and technology in200,000 this year and move to the terventions, SVP has proved to be aspirational million marks before a model that truly adds value and India turns seventy five, SVP India makes a difference! is becoming an exemplar in the soAs the need for well-meaning cial sector. social interventions expands in The model of SVP is robust beour fast-growing country with an cause of the checks and balances even faster-growing digital divide created in the system. The partner

66 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2018

group in each city consists of a mix of senior industry leaders, successful executives and young first-time philanthropists who take on roles of grants management, leading NGO partnerships and chapter partner engagement. Each chapter has a Chair and a General Manager (Meher Pudumjee and Parul Vaidya in Pune), who join the National Board. The Board itself with Advisors like Arun Maira is connected with the global movement with the National Chair participating on the global Board and the flow of knowledge intent and support is unobstructed and beneficial to all parts of the network.

In India, we have no shortage of major causes. National Digital Literacy, Municipal School Education, Healthcare, Agriculture and Sustainable Livelihoods are causes that spring to mind, each of which will need many entities to come together, work in a transparent partnership with local and Central Governments and set a lofty agenda for transformation, with several milestones to be achieved on the path to success. Civil society, supported by individual and corporate social responsibility, volunteer movements and symbiotic partnerships with Governments can make true change happen. It is time well-meaning citizens in every city and the entire country came together to architect a new change model and work together for the cause of a billion people! Entities like Social Venture Partners and Pune City Connect are true exemplars.

Dr Ganesh Natarajan is Chairman of 5F World, Pune City Connect & Social Venture Partners, Pune.

Printed and published by Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian on behalf of Sri Balaji Society. Editor: Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian.

Published from : 925/5, Mujumdar Apt, F.C. Road, Pune - 411004, Maharashtra.

Printed at Magna Graphics (I) Ltd., 101-C&D Govt. Industrial Estate, Hindustan Naka, Kandivali (W), Mumbai - 400067.

Artificial Intelligence

Sophia is world’s most glamorous robot Sophia is Hanson Robotics’ latest and most advanced robot to date and a cultural icon. She has become a media darling, appearing on major media outlets around the world, igniting the interest of people regardless of age, gender, and culture, even gracing the cover of one of the top fashion magazines. Her press coverage reached reach of over 10 billion readers in 2017

Dr

David Hanson has built a worldwide reputation for creating the world’s most humanlike, empathetic robots, endowed with remarkable expressiveness, aesthetics and interactivity. He has produced many renowned, one-of-a-kind robot characters that have received massive media and public acclaim.

Hanson Robotics has enchanted and captured the imagination of the world with uncannily humanlike robots endowed with remarkable expressiveness, aesthetics, and interactivity. Our robots will soon engage and live with us to teach, serve, entertain, delight, and provide comforting companionship. In the not-too-distant future, Genius Machines will walk among us. They will be smart, kind, and wise. Together, man and machine, will create a better future for the world.

Sophia is Hanson Robotics’ latest and most advanced robot to date and a cultural icon.

She has become a media darling, appearing on major media outlets around the world, igniting the interest of people regardless of age, gender, and culture, even gracing the cover of one of the top fashion magazines. Her press coverage reached reach of over 10 billion readers in 2017.

Sophia is a highly sought-after speaker in business and showed her prowess and great potential across many industries. She has met face to face with key decision makers in banking, insurance, auto manufacturing, property development, media, and entertainment. In addition, she has appeared onstage as a panel member and presenter in high-level conferences, covering how robotics and artificial intelligence will become a prevalent part of people’s lives. Her reputation extends beyond business into the global social arena. She was named the world’s first United Nation Innovation Champion

by United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and will have an official role in

working with UNDP to promote sustainable development and safeguard human rights and equality.

Sophia is an evolving genius machine. Her incredible human likeness, expressiveness, and remarkable story as an awakening robot over time makes her a fascinating front-page technology story.

Sophia’s creator, Dr David Hanson, is the founder of Hanson Robotics and a modern-day renaissance man who has built a worldwide reputation for creating robots that look and act amazingly human. After working at Disney as an ‘Imagineer’, Dr Hanson aspired to create genius machines that will surpass human intelligence. Dr Hanson believes that three distinctively human traits must be integrated into the artificial intelligence of these genius machines: Creativity, empathy, and compassion. As an extension of human intelligence, Hanson Robotics’ genius machines can evolve to solve world problems too complex for humans to solve themselves. Sophia personifies this bold and responsible goal.

Dr Hanson publishes regularly in materials science, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and robotics journals, including SPIE, IEEE, the International Journal of Cognitive Science, IROS, AAAI and AI magazine. He has been featured in numerous popular media outlets including New York Times, Popular Science, Scientific American, the BBC and CNN. He has been labeled a ‘genius’ by both PC Magazine and WIRED, and has earned awards from NASA, NSF, AAAI, Tech Titans’ Innovator of the Year, and Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial.

At Walt Disney Imagineering, Dr Hanson worked as both a sculptor and a technical consultant. He has spoken at venues including IEEE, SPIE, AAAI, DARPA, MIT, Dartmouth, Brown, Google, Sandia Labs, UCSD and AAAS annual meeting. Dr Hanson received his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in film/ animation/video, and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Dallas in interactive arts and engineering.

Please follow Sophia’s journey to observe and engage with her as she develops into an exciting platform for artificial general intelligence (AGI) and service robotics applications in business, medical/healthcare, and education.

Facebook: facebook.com/realsophiarobot Twitter: twitter.com/realsophiarobot Instagram: www.instagram.com/ realsophiarobot (Article courtesy: http://www.hansonrobotics. com) April 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 19 45